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J . 


THE PIRATE OF JASPER PEAK 


THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NBW YORK ■ BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
ATLANTA > SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Iro. 

TOBONTO 




Close to the hearth a big chair had been drawn and in this 

some one was sitting. 



THE PIRATE 
OF JASPER PEAK 


BY 

ADAIR ALDON 

Author of “The Island of Appledore,'* etc. 

^ CL. / >le,' •- 

^ ’• c 


WITH FRONTISPIECE 


Jl3eto gotfe 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1918 

A.II rights reserved 




COPTBIGHT, 1918 

By the MACMILLAN COMPANY 


Set up and electrotyped. Published, September, 1918 



OCT IB 1918 

©CI.A5()6198 




CONTENTS 


CHAPTER page 

I A Stranger in a Strange Land .... i 

II The Brown Bear’s Skin 20 

III Laughing Mary 46 

IV The Heart of the Forest 65 

V Oscar Dansk 84 

VI The Promised Land 103 

VII Whither Away? 128 

VIII A Night’s Lodging 147 

IX Peril at the Bridge 164 

X First Blood to the Pirate 186 

XI The White Flag 203 

XII A Highway through the Hills . . . 224 












THE PIRATE OF JASPER PEAK 

CHAPTER I 


A STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND 



HE long Pullman train, an hour late and 


1 greatly begrudging the time for a special 
stop, came sliding into the tiny station of Rudolm 
and deposited a solitary passenger upon the plat- 
form. The porter set Hugh Arnold’s suitcase on 
the ground and accepted his proffered coin, all in 
one expert gesture, and said genially : 

‘‘We’re way behind time on this run, but we 
come through on the down trip at six in the morn- 
ing, sharp. You-all will be going back with us 
to-morrow, I reckon.” 

“No,” replied Hugh, as he came down from the 
car step and gathered up his belongings. “No, 
I’m going to stay.” 

“Stay?” repeated the porter. “Oh — a week, I 


2 


The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

suppose. No one really stays at Rudolm 
except them that are born there and can’t get 
away.” 

Hugh shook his head. 

am going to stay all winter,” he said. 

‘The whole winter! Say, do you know what 
winter is up here?” the man exclaimed. “For 
the love of — ” 

A violent jolt of the train was the engineer’s 
reminder that friendly converse was not in order 
when there was time to be made up. 

“All right, sah, good-by. I hope you like 
staying, only remember — we go through every 
day at six in the morning less’n we’re late. 
Good-hy,'' 

The train swept away, leaving Hugh to look 
after it for a moment before he turned to take 
his first survey of Rudolm and the wide sheet of 
blue water upon whose shore it stood. 

Red Lake, when he and his father had first 
looked it up on the map, seemed a queer, crooked 
place, full of harbors and headlands and hidden 
coves, the wider stretches extending here and 


3 


A Stranger in a Strange Land 

there to fifteen, twenty, twenty-five miles of open 
water, again narrowing to mere winding chan- 
nels choked with islands. Hugh would have 
liked to say afterward that he knew even from 
the map that this was a region promising adven- 
tures, that down the lake’s winding tributaries he 
was going to be carried to strange discoveries, 
but, as a matter of fact, he had no such fore- 
knowledge. 

Indeed, it was his father who observed that the 
lake looked like a proper haunt for pirates and 
Hugh who reminded him that pirates were not 
ever to be found so far north. All the books he 
had seen, pictured them as burying treasure on 
warm, sunny, sandy beaches, or flying in pursuit 
of their prey on the wings of the South Sea 
winds. Pirates in the wooded regions to the 
north of the Mississippi Valley, pirates where the 
snow lay so deep and the lake was frozen for 
nearly half the year, where only through a short 
summer could the waters be plied by ‘'a low, rak- 
ing, black hulk” such as all pirates sail — it was 
not to be thought of! Even now, when Hugh 


4 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

stood on the station platform and caught his first 
glimpse of the real Red Lake, saw the wide blue 
waters flecked with sunny whitecaps, the hun- 
dred pine-covered islands and the long miles of 
wooded shore, even then he had no thought of 
how different he was to find this place from any 
other he had ever seen. Both lake and town 
seemed to him to promise little. 

For Rudolm, set in its narrow valley between 
the Minnesota hills, looked as though it had been 
dropped from some child’s box of toys, so small 
and square were the houses and so hit-or-miss 
was the order in which they stood along the one 
wide, crooked street. There were no trees grow- 
ing beside the rough wooden sidewalks, the street 
was dusty and the sun, even although it was Oc- 
tober, seemed to him to shine with a pitiless glare. 
He walked slowly along the platform, wonder- 
ing why Dick Edmonds had not come to meet 
him, thinking that Rudolm seemed the dullest 
and most uninteresting town in America and try- 
ing to stifle the rising wish that he had never 


come. 


s 


A Stranger in a Strange Land 

A soft pad, pad on the boards behind him 
made him turn his head as a man walked swiftly 
past. Hugh saw that his shapeless black hat had 
a speckled feather stuck into the band and that 
he wore, instead of shoes, soft rounded mocca- 
sins edged with a gay embroidery of beads. 
Plainly the man was an Indian. At the thought 
the boy's heart beat a little faster. He had not 
known there would be Indians! 

His own being in Rudolm was simple enough, 
although somewhat unexpected. Hugh's father 
was a doctor, enrolled in the Medical Reserve 
since the beginning of the war but not until this 
month ordered away to France. The problem of 
where Hugh should live during his absence was a 
difficult one since Hugh had no mother and there 
were no immediate relatives to whom he could go. 
He had finished school but had been judged rather 
too young for college, and, so his father main- 
tained in spite of frantic pleading, much too 
young to enlist. 

‘I'm sixteen," was the boy's insistent argu- 
ment, but — 


6 


The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

‘'Wait until you have been sixteen more than 
two days/’ was his father’s answer. 

“I could go with the medical unit, I know 
enough from helping you to be some use as a 
hospital orderly,” Hugh begged, “I would do 
anything just to go to France.” 

“They need men in France, not boys just on 
the edge of being men,” Dr. Arnold replied, 
“when you have had one or two years’ worth of 
experience and judgment, then you will be some 
help to them over there. But not now.” 

“The war will be over by then,” wailed Hugh. 

“Don’t fear,” his father observed grimly, 
“there is going to be enough of it for all of us to 
have our share.” 

So there the discussion ended and the ques- 
tion of what Hugh was to do came up for settle- 
ment. There was a distant cousin of his father’s 
in New York — but this suggestion was never 
allowed to get very far. Hugh had never met 
the cousin and did not relish the idea of going 
to live with him, “sight unseen” as he put it, 
on such short notice. It was his own plan to go 


A Stranger in a Strange Land 7 

to Rudolm where lived the two Edmonds broth- 
ers, John, cashier of the bank there and a great 
friend of his father’s, and Dick, a boy four years 
older than himself, whom he had met but once 
yet knew that he liked immensely. Several times 
John Edmonds had written to Dr. Arnold — 

'If Hugh ever wants to spend any time 'on 
his own’ we could find him a job here in Rudolm, 
I know. It is a queer little place, just a mining 
and lumbering town full of Swedes, but he might 
like the hunting and the country and find it inter- 
esting for a while.” 

It was the idea of spending the time "on his 
own” that made Hugh feel that thus the period 
of his father’s absence might chance to seem a 
little shorter and the soreness of missing him 
might grow a little less. John Edmonds had an- 
swered their letters most cordially and had said 
that all could be arranged and Hugh need only 
telegraph the day of his arrival. The final prep- 
arations had been hastened by the coming of Dr. 
Arnold’s sailing orders ; the two had bidden each 
other good-by and good luck with resolute cheer- 


8 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

fulness and Hugh had set forth on his long jour- 
ney northward. He had never seen the Great 
Lakes nor the busy inland shipping ports with 
their giant freighters lying at the docks, nor the 
rising hills of the Iron Range through which his 
way must lead, but he noticed them very little. 
His thoughts were very far away and fixed on 
other things. Even now, as he walked slowly 
up Rudolm’s one street he was not dwelling so 
much on his forlorn wonder why he did not see 
his friends, but was thinking of a great transport 
that must, almost at that hour, be nosing her way 
out of '^an Atlantic port,'' of the swift destroy- 
ers gathering to convoy her, of the salt sea 
breezes blowing across her deck, blowing sharp 
from the east, from over the sea — from France. 
For he was certain, from all that he could gather, 
that his father was sailing to-day and was launch- 
ing upon his new venture at almost the same time 
that Hugh was entering upon his own. 

Somewhat disconsolately the boy trudged on 
up the hot empty highway, seeing ahead of him 
the big, ramshackle building that must be the 


A Stranger in a Strange Land 9 

hotel and beyond that, at the end of the road, the 
shining blue of the lake. He was vaguely con- 
scious that, at every cottage window, white- 
headed children of all sizes and ages bobbed up 
to stare at him and ducked shyly out of sight 
again when they caught his eye. Between two 
houses he looked down to a sunny field where a 
woman with a three-cornered yellow kerchief on 
her head was helping some men at work. She 
did not look like an American woman at all, 
Hugh thought as he stopped to watch her, but 
walked on abashed when even she paused to look 
at him, leaning on her rake and shading her eyes 
with her hand. He rather liked her looks, some- 
how, even at that distance, she seemed so strong, 
in spite of her slenderness and she handled her 
rake with such vigorous sun-burned arms. 

He raised his eyes to the circle of hills that 
hemmed in the little town rising steeply from 
beyond the last row of houses and the irregular 
patchwork of little fields. They were oddly 
shaped hills, rolling range beyond range, higher 
and higher until, far in the distance there loomed 


10 


The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

the jagged mass of one big enough to be called 
a mountain. The nearer slopes were covered 
with heavy woods of pine and birch, the dense 
trees broken here and there by great masses of 
rock, black, gray or, more often, strange clear 
shades of red. 

‘‘Red Lake derives its name,’’ so the atlas had 
stated in its matter-of-fact fashion, “from the 
peculiar color of the jasper rock that appears in 
such quantity along its shores.” 

Hugh had never seen anything quite like that 
clear vermilion shade that glowed dully against 
the black-green of the pines. Across the slope of 
the nearest hill, showing clear like a clean-cut 
scar, there stretched a steep white road that 
wound sharply up to the summit and disappeared. 
He began to feel vaguely that although the town 
attracted him little, the road might lead to some- 
thing of greater promise. 

There were some men lounging before the door 
of the hotel when he reached it, miners or lumber- 
jacks wearing high boots and mackinaw coats. 
They were talking in low tones and eyeing Hugh 


II 


A Stranger in a Strange Land 

with open curiosity. Just as he came to the 
steps, two figures shuffled silently past him, one, 
the Indian he had seen at the station, the other, 
a broad-shouldered, broad-waisted woman stoop- 
ing under the heavy burden she carried on her 
back. The man, erect and unimpeded, strode 
quickly forward, but she stopped a moment to 
readjust the deerskin strap which passed over 
her forehead and supported the heavy weight of 
her pack. She turned her swarthy face toward 
Hugh and greeted him with a broad, friendly 
smile, then bowed her head once more and 
trudged on after her master. The boy, not used 
to the ways of Indian husbands and their wives, 
stood staring after the two in shocked astonish- 
ment. 

‘‘That’s Kaniska, the best guide around here, 
and his squaw,” he heard one of the men say 
to another. “She’s the only Indian hereabouts 
the only one I ever heard of, really, that smiles 
at every one she meets. They are all of them 
queer ducks ; no matter how well you know them 
you never can tell what they are thinking about. 


12 


The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

I believe she is the very queerest of them all. 
The Swedes here call her Laughing Mary.’’ 

The two dark figures slipped out of sight 
around a corner and Hugh went up the steps 
into the hotel. The big, untidy room was ap- 
parently empty except for a bluebottle fly buzzing 
against the window. A faint snore, however, 
made Hugh aware that he was not alone and 
drew his attention to the office clerk, sitting be- 
hind the high desk, his head back, his heels up, 
sound asleep. The men outside had ceased talk- 
ing, the entire village was so quiet that Hugh 
could actually hear a katydid singing its last 
summer song loudly and manfully down in the 
field. 

'T never saw such a town before,” he thought 
bitterly, ‘'the whole place is either dead or 
asleep !” 

He rapped sharply on the desk to arouse the 
clerk and was delighted to see him awake with a 
guilty jump. 

“Can you tell me where I can find — ” he began, 
but a voice at his elbow interrupted him. 


13 


A Stranger in a Strange Land 

Turning, he saw that the woman he had noticed 
in the field had left her work to come hurrying 
after him, and now stood, a little breathless, at 
his side. She had very kindly blue eyes, he ob- 
served, and a rather heavy Swedish face that 
lit up wonderfully when she smiled. 

*'You are Hugh Arnold, is it not so?’' she said. 
‘‘John Edmonds has told me that you would be 
here.” 

‘'Oh, yes,” cried Hugh with relief, ‘T was just 
asking for him. Can you tell me where he is?” 

The clerk, a sandy-haired, freckled youth, 
leaned over the desk and spoke eagerly. 

“Why, haven’t you heard — ?” he said, but the 
woman cut him short. 

“I will tell the boy of that,” she announced 
with decision, then added to Hugh, “The two 
Edmonds are not here now, and it is best that you 
should come to stay at my house until they come 
again. This hotel is no fit place for you.” 

To this last frank statement the clerk agreed 
with surprising warmth. 

“We have some queer customers here at times,” 


14 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

he admitted, ''and I won’t deny there’s a sight 
of them is ugly ones. There’s that fellow from 
Jasper Peak blew in last evening and kept me up 
all night. When he and his friends are here 
there’s always something doing.” 

"Do not begin to talk of them, Jethro Brown,” 
the woman said a little impatiently, "or you will 
keep us here all day, and this boy is wanting his 
dinner, I make no doubt.” 

The clerk laughed a little, although without 
much merriment. 

"I guess you are right, Linda,” he replied, 
"and talk of that gang is only words wasted. 
You’d better go along home with Mrs. Ingmars- 
son, sonny, you couldn’t be in better hands.” 

Much nettled at being called "sonny” by this 
person so little older than himself, Hugh merely 
nodded stiffly, took up his suitcase and followed 
Linda Ingmar sson to the door. Jethro, however, 
stopped them before they could get outside. 

"How about your baggage,” he inquired, "got 
a trunk or anything at the station ?” 


A Stranger in a Strange Land 15 

Hugh was not certain whether his trunk had 
arrived with him or not, so the clerk volunteered 
to telephone and find out. While he was doing 
so, Hugh stood waiting in the doorway, looking 
idly down the street and at the hills beyond. He 
noticed again the line of white highway that fas- 
cinated him curiously as it slanted upward 
through the dense woods. He turned to his com- 
panion who stood so silent beside him and ven- 
tured a question. 

^'What is that road, please?'’ he asked; ‘‘where 
does it go?" 

Linda Ingmarsson looked up quickly toward 
the hill, while her face took on a new expression, 
wistful, sad, but somehow proud as well. 

“That is my young brother Oscar's road," she 
said; “now it goes nowhere but some day — some 
day it will go far." 

Hugh could not make very much out of this 
answer, but did not have time to ponder it long. 
Jethro announced that all was well with the bag- 
gage, so Hugh and Linda went out together. It 


1 6 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

was a relief to him to think that he was with a 
person who knew at least who he was and why 
he had come. 

‘'You are very good/' he began shyly as they 
came out on the steps; “you should not — " but 
the rest of his sentence was never spoken. 

The hot sleepy silence was broken suddenly by 
a shrill steam whistle, followed by another and 
another. A strident siren joined them; then 
came a deep blast from some steamer on the lake ; 
then a loud clanging of bells added their voices 
to the tumult. For full five minutes the deafen- 
ing noise continued until Hugh’s ears beat with 
it and his head rang. The street had become 
alive with people, women with aprons over their 
heads, men in overalls, scores of children, as 
though each of the little houses had sent forth 
a dozen inhabitants. Down at a far corner Hugh 
saw the two Indians come into view again, the 
man with his head up, listening, like a deer, the 
woman with a pleading hand laid upon his arm. 
He brushed her aside roughly, and disappeared 
beyond the turn, she following meekly after. No 


17 


A Stranger in a Strange Land 

one noticed them except himself, Hugh felt cer- 
tain, since every face was turned northward to 
the wooded rocky hill that overhung the town. 
Puffs of white steam rose here and there among 
the trees, showing the mine buildings or the lum- 
ber mills from which the whistling came. 

This was no ordinary blowing of signals to 
mark the noon hour : the excitement, the anxious 
faces, the hideous insistence of the noise all told 
him that. Just at the instant that he felt he 
could not endure the tumult longer, silence fell. 

‘'What is it, what is it ?” he gasped his inquiry, 
and one of the men standing by the steps, the one 
who had spoken of Laughing Mary, began to 
explain. 

“You see — about four days ago — ” The 
words were cut off by a new outbreak of the 
clamor. It rose higher this time and lasted 
longer, it rolled back from the hills and seemed 
to echo from the ground itself. Twice it fell 
and twice broke out once more, a long fifteen 
minutes of unendurable bedlam. The man, un- 
dismayed, called his explanations into Hugh’s ear. 


l8 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

sometimes drowned out by the uproar, sometimes 
left shouting alone in a moment of throbbing 
silence. What Hugh caught came in broken 
fragments. 

^Two fellows — hunting — gone four days now 
— lost some way — these hills — blowing all the 
whistles at once — hoped — might hear — 

The screaming and clanging finally died away, 
leaving one long-drawn siren to drop alone, while 
Hugh’s informant also lowered his voice to or- 
dinary speech. 

‘We do that hereabouts when people get lost. 
Every whistle in three counties is blowing right 
now, so if they don’t hear one and follow it, they 
may another. Sometimes it brings them back, 
more often it doesn’t. It’s an ugly thing to get 
lost in these hills.” 

“How long did you say they had been gone?” 
asked Hugh. 

“Three — four — no, by George, it’s five days. 
There’s their pile of mail that’s been collecting on 
the window ledge, and those first letters are five 
days old.” 


19 


A Stranger in a Strange Land 

The man glanced at a pile of envelopes that 
lay just inside the window. The upper one was 
yellow and caught Hugh’s involuntary attention 
as he stood by the door. The people were dis- 
persing and the excitement evidently was over. 

The telegraph envelope was one of those trans- 
parent-faced ones, showing the name and address 
inside. Half unconsciously Hugh read, ''John 
Edmonds, Rudolm, Minnesota.” He turned 
with a gasp and looked closer. A little of the 
typewritten line was visible below, "Thanks for 
letter, will arrive — ” 

It was his own message that had never been 
received. His two friends, his only two friends 
within a thousand miles, were the men who had 
vanished into the forest. 


CHAPTER II 


THE BROWN BEARDS SKIN 

I T was not until some hours after his dismay- 
ing discovery that Hugh was able to get any 
particulars of what had really happened to John 
and Dick Edmonds. A dozen people at once 
tried to tell him of the affair, putting in much 
comment on what they themselves thought and 
what they had said to friends at the time, with 
most confusing results. Although he was so be- 
wildered, he began at least to understand one 
thing, that Rudolm was not at all the town he 
had believed it to be. He had considered it 
lonely, empty of friends, dull and lifeless, and 
behold, it was quite otherwise! In fifteen min- 
utes — probably the exact length of time required 
by little Nels Larson to travel the whole length of 
the street and tell every one of the newcomer 
who was a friend of the lost Edmonds — words 


20 


The Brown Bears Skin 21 

of kindliness and sympathy began to pour in 
upon him. Long before the small, unofficial 
towncrier had come to the last house, the first 
sunburned face had appeared in Linda Ingmars- 
son’s doorway, and the first heavy Swedish voice 
had asked for ^^that boy that vas Edmonds 
friendt.” The shyness and reserve that usually 
stood firm between these people and any stranger, 
melted away at the sight of some one who was in 
trouble. It was, at last, by the very greatness of 
their proffered kindness that Hugh began to real- 
ize how serious his trouble was. 

It was only the last visitor who gave him the 
actual facts of the affair, Nels Larson, Senior, a 
little elderly Swede with a wrinkled skin and 
puckered eyes that were mere pin-pricks of blue. 
He chanced to be left alone with Hugh and 
proved so shy and slow of speech that he was 
able to answer direct questions and make the 
truth clear without complicating it with opinions 
of his own. He said that the two Edmonds boys 
had gone hunting, and expected, so far as any one 
knew, to be gone but a day, that they had pos- 


22 


The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

sibly meant to meet an Indian guide in the woods 
but had left Rudolm alone save for their dog. 
That one day of their absence had passed, and 
two, without causing any anxiety, that search 
had been made on the third day and the fourth 
and fifth, but without result. 

‘‘But does no one know which way they went?'’ 
asked Hugh desperately. “Couldn't they have 
got to some other town ? Couldn't they just have 
taken a wrong road? Aren't people often lost 
that long and still able to get back?" 

The other slowly shook his head. 

“There's no town between here and Canada," 
he said; “no, indeed, nor for a hundred miles 
north of the border either. And there are no 
houses in the direction the Edmonds boys went, 
nor camps — and roads, bless you, these woods 
don't have roads. Just trees — and trees — and 
trees — and Heaven help the man who loses his 
bearings amongst them 1" 

“Are people still looking for them?" cried 
Hugh; “surely they haven't given up hope yet!" 

“There is no hope," Nels answered with a 


The Brown Bears Skin 23 

sigh; would look for a year if it would be 
of any use; but why go on searching when we 
know they cannot be found?” 

He got to his feet to go, leaving Hugh still 
sitting, stunned, trying to think what this cruel 
news must mean to him. At the door Nels 
paused and, even without the encouragement of 
a question, actually volunteered a remark of his 
own. 

‘There is something I must tell you also,” he 
said, “for others may say it to you and perhaps 
not with kindness. It is that John Edmonds left 
his accounts in bad shape at the bank, that his 
books are confused and there is talk of money 
missing. So there are some people, and pres- 
ently there will be more and more, who say that 
even if he is not dead in the woods he will never 
come back.” 

“That is not true,” cried Hugh, springing from 
his seat, “that cannot possibly be true.” 

“No,” returned Nels, “I do not think it can be. 
There are many rascals in this neighborhood, but 
John Edmonds is not one of them.” 


24 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

He put on his battered old hat that was so big 
it came far down over his ears, took up his thick 
umbrella, opened the door and weUt out. Hugh 
sat by the table, his chin in his hand, thinking 
deeply long after Nels had gone. It was hard 
to know what to believe, what to think and above 
all what to do. 

He could hear Linda Ingmarsson talking to 
her children in the next room and presently one 
small boy came in and seated himself, without 
saying a word, on a chair by the door. He 
seemed to think that politeness demanded his sit- 
ting with the guest, although to talk to him was 
far beyond his power. Linda’s husband stood 
at the door a moment, but went away again. He 
was a big, quiet man, seeming much like an over- 
grown edition of his small son. Hugh, beginning 
to look about him, concluded that this room was 
quite the cleanest place that he had ever seen. 
The boards of the floor were worn smooth with 
much scrubbing, the copper kettles on the shelves 
winked in the firelight. In one corner stood a 
quaintly carved cupboard, painted a most bril- 


The Brown Bear's Skin 25 

liant blue, that must surely have come from 
Sweden, or have been made by the patient labor 
of Ingmarsson's great rough hands. In the cen- 
ter of the table was another bit of carving, a 
really beautiful wooden bowl with a raised wreath 
of water lilies fashioned about its edge. It was 
full of moss and gay red bunches of partridge 
berries. The Ingmarsson child saw Hugh’s eyes 
resting upon it and, with a mighty effort, man- 
aged to speak. 

''My Uncle Oscar, he made it,” the youngster 
said in his little Swedish voice; "he brought 
it to us with the berries in it the last time he came 
from the mountain.” 

It was his only attempt at conversation and, 
although bravely undertaken, lapsed immediately 
into frightened silence. 

Linda, entering just then, finally broke the 
quiet of Hugh’s reflections. 

"Supper will soon be ready,” she said. "Carl, 
take the visitor upstairs and show him where to 
put his things.” 

The small guide went obediently before Hugh, 


26 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

climbed the narrow stairs and opened the door of 
the guest's room, a tiny place with sloping ceil- 
ing and square dormer windows, everything shin- 
ing with the same cleanliness so evident below. 
Carl opened the cupboard doors, pulled out the 
drawers of the press and finally, evidently think- 
ing that hospitality demanded his speaking again, 
pointed to a picture on the wall. 

‘That is the two Edmonds," he said; “did you 
know them?" 

Hugh, looking closely at the faded little photo- 
graph, managed to recognize Dick Edmonds, but 
had no knowledge of the older brother whom he 
had never seen. Beside Dick, with his nose in 
his master's hand, stood a big, white dog. 

“That is Nicholas," announced Karl; “he came 
from Russia. We Swedes do not like Russians, 
but we all loved Nicholas. John Edmonds said 
he used to belong to a prince in Russia, so he was 
different from our dogs. He. used to laugh and 
call him the Grand Duke. With men and other 
dogs Nicholas was very proud but he always 


The Brown Bears Skin 27 

would play with us. So we liked him. And how 
he could run 

‘‘He is a beauty/' Hugh agreed heartily; “I 
should like to see him." 

He turned toward the window where the 
hinged sash stood open and through which he 
could look out at the sunset and at the distant 
mountain black against a flaming sky. He could 
see most of the little town also where the chil- 
dren were running home and men were coming 
from their work and gay voices could be heard 
calling greetings from one doorway to another. 
The tiny houses had a comfortable, cozy look, now 
that he knew what warm-hearted people lived 
within. Carl came to his side, seeming to feel 
more at ease, and began to point out one place 
after another. 

“That is Nels Larson's house," he said, “and 
that is the landing where the boats come in from 
the lake and that," pointing to the mountain, “is 
Jasper Peak. My Uncle Oscar lives way out 
beyond there." 


zS The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

lives on the mountain?” said Hugh; ‘'that 
must be very far away.” 

“No, not on the mountain,” corrected Carl, 
“‘beyond it. On the mountain there lives a — a — 
another man.” 

“What sort of a man?” inquired Hugh, caught 
by the little boy's change of tone. 

“Oh, a strange man. He is half Indian ; peo- 
ple call him a pirate; his name is Jake.” 

“Has he no other name?” asked Hugh; “is 
every one so afraid of him as you are ?” 

“His whole name is Half-Breed Jake, and, yes, 
every one is afraid of him except just my mother 
and her brother Oscar and maybe Dick Edmonds 
and the dog Nicholas. Every one else.” 

“Does he live out there on the mountain all 
alone?” Hugh inquired. 

“Yes, he will not let any one live near him. 
He will not let any one shoot in his woods or fish 
in his streams or paddle a canoe on his end of 
the lake.” 

“And are they all his?” In spite of being so 


The Brown Bears Skin 29 

absorbed in other things Hugh was growing in- 
terested. 

‘^Not really his, he just says they are,’’ Carl 
explained vaguely. ‘‘No one dares go near his 
place now after — after some things that have 
happened. The Indians will do anything he says, 
they and even some of the Swedes say that the 
bullets from his gun can shoot farther than any 
other man’s, and that his ill will can find you 
out no matter where you hide. Yes, we call him 
the Pirate of Jasper Peak.” 

“But you say your Uncle Oscar lives out there 
too?” 

“Oh, yes,” assented Carl, “but you know with 
my Uncle Oscar it is all different.” 

Linda called from below, causing her small son 
to rush clattering down the stairs and leave Hugh 
alone. He stood long by the window watching 
the sunset fade and pondering deeply. 

“So there can be pirates this far north after 
all,” he was thinking, “and father was right.” 

With the thought came a sudden pang of home- 


30 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

sickness, a longing for his father, for the com- 
fortable, ordinary life at home, for everything 
that was usual and familiar. What would be- 
come of him here, he wondered, what could be 
the end of this venture ‘'on his own” ? What a 
strange place it was to which his journey had led 
him, what strange people he had met or heard 
of that day, the clumsy, friendly Swedes, kind- 
hearted Linda Ingmarsson, that mysterious Jake 
out on the mountain, that brother Oscar whose 
road it was that climbed the hill. He ran 
through the list over and over and found that his 
mind, with odd insistence, kept coming back to 
the road that “now went nowhere but some day 
would go far.” 

The announcement that supper was ready in- 
terrupted his reflections, after which he received 
a pressing invitation from Carl to go with him 
to get the mail. Rudolm knew no such luxury 
as a postman, it went every night to fetch its let- 
ters at the general store where John Benson sold 
meat and calico and mackinaw coats. The little 
postmistress who sorted the mail behind her own 


The Brown Bears Skin 31 

official counter was an expert at her task, for no 
one besides herself could make head or tail of 
some of the Swedish and Finnish scrawls that 
came from the Old Country or the French-Cana- 
dian flourishes on the addresses of the picture 
postcards. No one else could have remembered 
that Baptiste Redier liked to have his papers ac- 
cumulate for six months while he was away at 
the lumber camp, or that Gus Sorenson must not 
be trusted with the Malmsteads' mail if he had 
been drinking, or that it was a kind act to pretend 
to look through the pigeonholes when an Indian 
asked for mail, even though it was well known 
that none of these Chippewas ever got a letter. 
''Stamp-stamp,’’ would go the marking machine 
behind the window, "stamp” — a long pause and 
then another brisk "stamp-stamp.” No matter 
in what a hurry were the patrons of the Rudolm 
postoffice, they must wait, every man, woman and 
child of them, until Miss Christina had read all 
the postals. 

The little place was already crowded when 
Hugh arrived, mostly with men and children, for 


32 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

the women did not often come for the mail, it was 
their hour for washing dishes. Hugh sat down 
on a bench in the corner to listen to the talk go- 
ing on about him in all degrees of broken English. 
It concerned mostly the lost Edmonds boys, but 
occasionally drifted back to the universal subject, 
the war, for this was the time when the American 
army was gathering in France, when Russia was 
crumbling, when the first pinch of winter was 
beginning to be felt abroad and the cry was going 
up over all the world to America for bread. By 
and by the general talk died away and all began 
to listen to some one who was airing a grievance 
very loudly on the other side of the room. He 
was a big man with a rough corduroy coat and 
a rougher voice which he raised very loud in the 
height of his indignation. 

tell you there wasn't a better bale of furs 
in the whole Green River country. I got some 
myself, trapping, and bought some from the In- 
dians, and there wasn’t one pelt but was a beauty, 
but the brown bear skin was the best of all. Five 


The Brown Bear's Skin 33 

hundred dollars I would 'a’ got for them, just 
that little bale, not a cent less — and when I come 
to myself again every hide and hair of them was 
gone 

‘^And you can’t tell who took them?” ques- 
tioned one of his audience. 

‘‘I can’t tell but I could guess right enough. 
I didn’t see nobody, only a billion or two stars 
when I was hit over the head in the dark, and 
that was all. There’s only one man around here 
who will do that kind of dirty work and he hails 
from Jasper Peak. That’s the kind of fur trad- 
ing he likes to do, let some other man go through 
the snow and the cold, spending his good money, 
risking his life, tramping along his line of traps 
or from one Indian camp to another, wheedling 
the red rascals into selling their furs, and just as 
a fellow’s nearly home again, dreaming about the 
profit there’s going to be this time, here comes 
some one sneaking behind in the dark and the 
whole thing’s gone !” 

''You was lucky he did not shoot you. Ole Pet- 


34 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

erson/’ commented another friend. ‘'He does 
not care much who he shoots, that Jake he 
doesn’t.’" 

“I would just like to meet up with him some- 
where,” Peterson returned quickly. “A man 
can’t do nothing when they sneak up on him in 
the dark, but if I ever have the chance, why. I’ll 
just show him once. I wouldn’t have sold those 
furs for less than seven hundred dollars, I swear. 
And that bear skin, I tell you, was a prize.” 

“Wass it so beeg?” asked an old Swede, sitting 
in the corner near Hugh. 

“No, sir, it wasn’t big, but it was rare. Just 
a bear cub it was, but a cub that had turned out 
blond by some freak and surprised his old black 
mother some. I’ll be bound. Not the brown, 
even, that grizzly bears are, but a light, gold, yel- 
low brown. The Indian who had it vowed he 
wouldn’t sell it, not for any price, but at last I 
got it away from him. And I’d like just to meet 
the fellow that stole it from me. Shooting would 
be too good, I’d — ” 

Miss Christina opened her window at this point 


The Brown Bears Skin 35 

and put an end to the fearful threats of Ole 
Peterson. Hugh received his mail almost the 
first of all, a short and very hasty note from his 
father, which did not say openly that they were 
about to embark but contained more than one 
veiled hint to that effect. He read it through 
three times, trying to make the most of the cen- 
sored information it contained. Then, his atten- 
tion caught by the complete silence that had fallen 
around him, he looked up to see what had hap- 
pened. 

Nothing, apparently, had really occurred ex- 
cept that a newcomer had entered abruptly and 
banged the door behind him. Yet as he strode 
over to the middle of the room every person in 
the crowded place drew back, the big Swedes el- 
bowing the quick Canadians, the children stand- 
ing on tip-toes to peer under the arms or around 
the shoulders of their protecting elders. The 
space that had been filled a moment before by a 
chattering, friendly group, became all in an in- 
stant silent and empty with the big man standing 
quite alone. 


36 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

He was very big, as Hugh noticed at first 
glance, taller than any other man there, and 
strong and heavy in proportion. One of his 
broad shoulders sagged a little under the strap of 
a heavy pack which he presently unbuckled and 
dropped upon the floor. His hair was very long 
and black under his slouch hat and his skin was 
so dark that Hugh felt sure he must be an Indian. 

‘'Any mail for me?” he called across to the 
postmistress without troubling himself to turn 
around. 

Miss Christina had disappeared somewhere 
into the protecting depths of the postoffice de- 
partment. Her voice rose, trembling, from be- 
hind the partition, 

“I think so,” she said, “but it’s been here some 
time. I will have to look it out.” 

“No hurry,” returned the man with an insolent 
laugh at the quavering of her voice; “don’t dis- 
turb yourself so much. I can wait.” 

He threw himself down upon one of the 
benches and pushed back his hat. Hugh felt 
something like a shudder when he first saw his 


The Brown Bears Skin 37 

eyes; they were blue, a pale unlovely blue that 
looked terrifyingly strange, set in his dark face. 

^*Hello, friends,’’ the stranger continued gen- 
ially. “I thought I would look in and get my 
mail before I was off down-State to sell my furs. 
I’ve got a fine lot this year, the best that’s come 
out of Canada for a long while.” 

There was no answer, unless one could call 
little Eva Stromberg’s frightened squeak a reply, 
or the uneasy shifting of old Nels Larson’s big 
feet. 

''Would you like to see what I’ve got?” the man 
went on, seemingly quite untroubled by the lack 
of friendliness. "You won’t see anything so fine 
again for quite a month of Sundays, nor anything 
that’s worth so much money, you poor penny- 
pinchers. Come here, sis,” he added to one of 
the smaller children; "you would like to see my 
furs, now, wouldn’t you?” 

The little girl, afraid to disobey, advanced with 
something of the air of a charmed bird, and came 
trembling to his side. He opened the big pack 
and spread out its contents on the floor. 


38 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

'That’s otter/’ he said to her; "don’t be fright- 
ened, just feel of it. Isn’t it silky and soft?” 

She passed her hand obediently over the silvery 
brown surface and then, bursting into terrified 
sobs, ran to take refuge behind her father. The 
stranger, undisturbed, went on spreading out his 
wares. 

"This wolf skin now should bring me some- 
thing big,” he said. "Of course wolf isn’t much 
compared to otter but I’ve never seen finer fur. 
Step up, folks, and look, it’s a dead wolf that isn’t 
going to bite you.” 

It was Hugh alone who felt sufficient curiosity 
to come nearer. A wolf skin, an otter skin ! He 
had never seen one before. He came closer and 
closer as the man unrolled more and more of the 
soft, furry pelts. 

"Now this—” 

He stopped, for even he must take notice of the 
gasp that went through the crowd, a gasp of sur- 
prise and indignant protest. Only Hugh, eager 
and excited, took no notice of the strange tension 


The Brown Bears Skin 39 

in the air, so astonished was he at the sight of 
what lay in the man’s hands. 

‘‘Why,” he blurted out, “it’s Ole Peterson’s 
brown bear skin !” 

A quiver seemed to run through the whole of 
the crowd, while the silence became so complete 
that Miss Christina’s clock upon the wall went 
tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, three times before 
any one seemed to move or before the storm of 
the stranger’s fury broke forth. 

“Whose did you say?” he snarled, rising sud- 
denly and standing over Hugh, a threatening, 
towering figure. “Whose did you say it was?” 

Hugh thought afterwards that never, as long 
as he lived, would he forget how terrible were 
those shifty, pale-blue eyes in that lowering face. 
He could never say it was real courage, but only 
rash, hot anger that made him answer defiantly, 

“I said it was Ole Peterson’s. He told us it 
was the only one in the country and that it was 
stolen from him.” 

The man gave a queer, harsh laugh. 


40 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

‘'Ole, come here,” he ordered. 

There came out from the corner a very differ- 
ent Peterson from the reckless, angry person who 
had voiced his wrongs a few moments before. 
This poor creature was fairly sallow with terror, 
and was apparently trying to make his large fig- 
ure as small and inconspicuous as possible. He 
swallowed convulsively two or three times before 
he was able to speak. 

“What is it, Jake?” he questioned meekly. 

The man called Jake flung the skin toward 
him. 

“Is that yours?” he asked in a tone that said 
plainly, “Claim it if you dare.” 

Ole passed his hand lovingly over the lustrous 
brown gold of the thick fur. He held it up so 
that all could see the shape of the chubby little 
bear cub whose coat it once had been, and the 
dark hairy paws that still dangled from it. He 
smoothed the dark shadings of the fur and looked 
at them with longing. 

“Is it yours?” Jake insisted, turning from 
Hugh to advance a threatening step toward Ole. 


The Brown Bear's Skin 


41 

'‘No/’ said Peterson at last in a frightened 
husky voice. ‘‘No, it ain’t mine, Jake.” 

“Then what the — ?” The stranger made one 
stride toward Hugh and caught his shoulder in 
a grasp that made the bones grind together. 
The boy looked about him desperately, surely 
some one of all these men would come forward 
to his aid. He saw pity in the eyes of many of 
them, and one or two making a movement toward 
him and then drawing back. It needed only that 
to prove to him at last that this was the much- 
feared Pirate of Jasper Peak. 

Yet before either could move further, before 
Jake could finish his question, help came from an 
unexpected quarter. The door beside them 
opened and closed quickly, and Linda Ingmarsson 
came in. The wind had blown her yellow hair 
from under her kerchief, her cheeks were glow- 
ing and her eyes bright. She made a single step 
to Hugh’s side and laid her strong, firm fingers 
on Jake’s crushing hand. He withdrew it as 
quickly as though something had stung him. 

“So you are at your old bullying ways,” she 


42 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

said scornfully; ‘'you found long ago that there 
was one woman not afraid of you, now you find 
a boy. It is like you to believe that he would fear 
you as the rest do, but this time you are wrong. 
And you know that there is nothing that can 
make you so angry as to find some one you can- 
not terrify.^' 

He muttered something but did not speak 
aloud. 

“Come,"’ she said to Hugh, and, “Come, Carl,'' 
she added as she held out her hand to her small 
son and moved toward the door. But Jake 
barred the way. 

“He tried to tell me that bear skin wasn't 
mine," he blustered. “He said it was Ole Peter- 
son's, but Peterson vows it isn't his. What do 
you make of that? Has he any right to call me 
a thief ?" 

Linda answered quite undisturbed. 

“He is a shrewder boy than are we Swedes," 
she said, “and has been quick to see the truth. 
Yet he is not the only one to know you for a 
thief." 


The Brown Bears Skin 


43 

The man’s blazing eyes narrowed into slits and 
his grating, harsh voice was full of suppressed 
fury. 

^There are not many who have dared to call 
me that, Linda Ingmarsson,” he said, ‘‘and who- 
ever does it, whether man, woman or boy, will 
live to be bitterly sorry. John Edmonds did, and 
where is he? Out there in the woods, I hear, 
lost, dead beyond a doubt, he and his brother, the 
worthless two of them. I heard the whistles 
blowing as I came down the valley, and I thought 
to myself, ‘You can blow them until they split, 
but you will never call him back.’ ” He lowered 
his voice, yet still spoke so that all could hear — 
“He didn’t want to be called back.” 

“John Edmonds and his brother will come 
back,” insisted Linda steadily, “for they have 
friends who believe in them and will help them 
still. Whatever John has left in confusion he 
will make plain and straight when he returns.” 

“What friends has he?” cried Jake scornfully. 
“Before another day has passed every one in 
Rudolm Valley will know just why they went, 


44 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

both of them, and then where will their friends 
be?’’ 

‘There is still my brother Oscar,” returned 
Linda. 

“And do you think your brother Oscar can save 
them? He does not even know what has hap- 
pened, and if he did, what help could he give?” 
Jake laughed harshly. “He is having all that he 
can do to save himself, these days, has Oscar 
Dansk.” 

Hugh could feel Linda’s hand tighten on his 
arm as though, in spite of herself, she winced 
under the last words. He stepped in front of 
her to face their common enemy, but she spoke 
before he could. 

“The Edmonds are not friendless,” she de- 
clared. “No matter what all the world may say 
there will still be some of us who know they are 
honest and who will find and save them in the 
end.” 

She moved to the door, and Jake, seeing that 
he could no longer block her way, suddenly 


The Brown Bears Skin 45 

stepped back and flung it open with a great 
flourish. 

wish you luck/’ he said; ‘‘it will be a long 
task, finding and saving two men who either have 
fled the country or are already dead.” 

Linda turned back to speak her last word as 
she and Hugh and Carl went out together into 
the dark. 

“I know they have not fled the country,” she 
said, “and I am certain they are not dead. Had 
anything happened to them, their dog would have 
been here to tell us. So I know they are alive 
since Nicholas has not come back.” 


CHAPTER III 

LAUGHING MARY 

H ugh sat in his little room for a long time 
that night, reviewing his adventures of this 
scant half day in Rudolm. He found it very dif- 
ficult to decide what to do, in the light of this 
unexpected turn of his affairs, the disappearance 
of the two Edmonds. Of one thing he was hotly 
certain, that John Edmonds had not vanished of 
his own will. The very fact of Hugh’s being 
there, urged to come by both the brothers, showed 
that their absence was entirely unplanned. He 
was less certain, however, of the chances of their 
ever coming safe home again. Linda Ingmars- 
son was sure they would, but she was only one 
woman holding her opinion against a score of 
men. He wished that he could make some effort 
of his own to find his friends, wished it more and 
46 


Laughing Mary 47 

more as he went slowly over the situation and 
realized how desperate it was. What could he 
do, a boy, alone, knowing nothing of woodcraft 
and the cruel mysteries of the forest? Nothing, 
reason told him plainly, absolutely nothing. 

Quite evidently he must go back to that cousin 
in New York who was to help him if things went 
wrong. That things had gone wrong, from the 
moment of his getting off the train, onward 
through his terrifying interview with Half-Breed 
Jake, was not to be denied. This seemed to be 
one of the few certain facts in the whirling con- 
fusion of his affairs. He recollected now how 
the friendly porter had felt misgivings as to the 
length of his stay in Rudolm and had reminded 
him that the train that would carry him back to 
the world he knew, would go through at six 
o’clock in the morning. After long pondering, 
he decided to take it. 

Just as he was about to go to bed he heard a 
sound at the window, a handful of pebbles strik- 
ing against the glass. He got up to look out and 
saw some one standing on the doorstep below. 


48 


The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

‘It is I, Jethro Brown/’ called a cautious voice. 
“Can you come down? I want to talk to you.” 

Hugh took up his candle and stole on tiptoe 
down the stairs. All of the Ingmarssons were 
sound asleep. He contrived to shoot back the 
bolts and open the front door without a sound. 
The clerk from the hotel, looking more lank and 
awkward than ever in the candle light, stood wait- 
ing outside. 

“I saw your window was bright and I had some 
things to tell you,” he said. “I am sorry to bring 
you down.” 

Hugh blew out the candle and they sat down 
together on the doorstep. 

“It is all right,” he said; “you wouldn’t have 
found me to-morrow. I am going away early in 
the morning.” 

“Going?” echoed the other in a tone of the 
greatest disappointment and dismay. Then he 
heaved a deep sigh. 

“Well,” he remarked, “I suppose it is the only 
thing you can do, but somehow I had kind of 
hoped you were going to stay.” 


Laughing Mary 49 

"'Why?’’ Hugh stared in astonishment, for 
what difference could it make to any one whether 
he remained in Rudolm or went away? 

Jethro sat staring at the ground between his 
feet and shuffled them uneasily several times. 

‘That Half-Breed Jake has been at the hotel 
all evening,’’ he said at last. “He has been talk- 
ing a long time about the Edmonds boys and 
how they have disappeared because they had to. 
It is true that John’s books at the bank were 
pretty badly mixed and they have had an expert 
up to go over them, but nothing has been proved 
yet, one way or the other. It seemed to me, at 
last, that Jake talked rather too much. He al- 
ways hated the Edmonds boys, they were too 
square and honest and they had blocked him more 
than once in some of his devilment. If there is 
a mean or a cruel or a crooked way of doing a 
thing, he will do it. That’s Jake.” 

“But why is every one so afraid of him?” in- 
quired Hugh. “He is only one man against all 
of you.” 

“It is just part of living here to be afraid of 


50 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

him, I suppose, and to try to keep out of trouble 
with him,’' Jethro answered slowly. ‘The In- 
dians fear him so much that they will do anything 
he says ; he understands them as very few men do 
and he uses his knowledge to get what he wants. 
A man who can control these Chippewas has a lot 
of power. There is a white deer that ranges 
these woods once in a long time and is supposed 
to bring bad luck. The Indians have a saying 
that whoever sees the white deer or opposes Half- 
Breed Jake is sure to die inside a year.” 

“But the Swedes have better sense than that !” 
exclaimed Hugh. 

“The Swedes are very superstitious too, and 
once they are convinced of a thing it is hard to 
make them change. And it does seem that who- 
ever stands in Jake’s way is cursed with bad for- 
tune until he gives it up. There are only a few 
that ever dared stand out against him, such as 
the Edmonds boys, and where are they?” 

Hugh sat quiet, watching the moon come up 
over the eastern rim of the valley. He found 
Jethro as talkative as the Swedes were silent. 


Laughing Mary 51 

but he felt no very great interest in these accounts 
of Half-Breed Jake, a man whom he instinctively 
hated and would, he hoped, never see again. 
Only wonder as to why Jethro wished him to 
stay in Rudolm and what all these details had 
to do with himself, held his lagging attention. 

‘'Do you see that road,'’ Jethro went on heat- 
edly, “that road yonder that leads over the hill? 
That would have meant a lot to the people here, 
but it came to nothing. It was to be built through 
the woods as far as Jasper Peak and would have 
opened up the country at the upper end of the 
lake. Jake stopped it. He calls all that country 
his, and is bound to keep the fishing and the hunt- 
ing and trapping for himself. He killed the plan 
with open threats and secret lies : at first the men 
went at it with a rush, but in the end somehow the 
whole thing fell through. It was the first time 
he ever scored a real victory ofif Oscar Dansk." 

Hugh turned, his interest caught at last. 

“That is one person I want to know about," 
he said. “Who is this Oscar Dansk?" 

“He is Linda Ingmarsson's younger brother," 


52 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

Jethro answered. ^^You know that much and it 
is hard to tell you a great deal more. Oscar isn’t 
like the rest of us. I don’t quite know what to 
say about him ; he is always dreaming about some- 
thing big, some way. His father must have been 
quite a great person back in Sweden ; he was poor 
to the end of his life, just as every one in Rudolm 
is poor, but you can see that Oscar and Linda are 
not quite the same kind of people as the rest.” 

''He doesn’t live here in Rudolm?” Hugh said. 

"Not now, he lives out beyond Jasper Peak. 
He is proving up on some kind of a claim, home- 
steading, right in the country that Half-Breed 
Jake calls his. He was here in April when war 
was declared and went down pell-mell to Duluth 
to enlist, wanted to go into the Navy, I think, 
these Swedes all do. But they wouldn’t take 
him, or for the army either, I don’t know why. 
He came back in a few days, looking grim and set 
and not saying a word to any one. He went 
right off into the woods again and weVe scarcely 
seen him since. It was a cruel disappointment. 


Laughing Mary 53 

I think, as bad as when he couldn't build his 
road." 

''But why did he care so much about the road?" 

Hugh’s curiosity about that mysterious high- 
way had grown greater and greater, yet even 
now it was not to be satisfied. 

"He had something big in his mind," Jethro 
said vaguely, "so big I never quite understood 
it. He was a fellow who could always see 
farther than the rest of us, I think. .John Ed- 
monds used to say he did, although even he lost 
faith in the plan about the road at last, and that 
nearly broke Oscar’s heart. Some people even 
said they had quarreled, but I don’t believe it. 
Oscar wasn’t the sort to bear a grudge." 

Jethro thrust his hands deep into his pockets 
and turned at last to face Hugh squarely. 

"That is what I am getting at," he said. "Os- 
car Dansk can find John and Dick Edmonds if any 
man on earth can do it. But some one would 
have to go out through the woods to tell him, 
otherwise it might be weeks before he hears what 


54 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

has happened. And the only person to go is 
you.’’ 

^'I?” cried Hugh in amazement, ''If Why, 
that’s impossible.” 

‘‘All right,” said the other briefly, “I was 
afraid maybe you would take it that way. Of 
course, after all, you oughtn’t to try it. Well, 
good-night.” 

He shambled off into the dark, leaving Hugh 
still staring in astonishment. He wished that 
he had not said quite so decisively that the plan 
was impossible, so that at least he might have 
heard more of it. How strange it was that, after 
leading up to the subject so long, Jethro should 
have dropped it so quickly. Probably he himself 
knew that it was impossible as well as did Hugh. 

Very slowly he went up to bed, still wonder- 
ing. It was in vain that he tried to compose his 
mind to sleep : he could not, for thinking of what 
Jethro had said. For an hour he tossed and 
turned and puzzled and pondered. At last he 
got up and went to the window, thinking that he 
might feel sleepy if he sat there for a while. 


55 


Laughing Mary 

The moon was very bright now, so that all the 
little square houses showed plainly, as did the 
white expanse of the empty street. Nothing 
stirred in all of the sleeping town ; the very quiet 
and peace did indeed make him feel drowsy al- 
most at once. He yawned a great yawn and was 
just about to turn from the window when a mov- 
ing shadow caught his eye. Some one was com- 
ing down the deserted street, some one who 
walked noiselessly but swiftly and with great de- 
termination. It was a woman, he could see, an 
Indian squaw, with broad, bent shoulders and 
heavy dark hair. Even at that distance and in 
the deceiving moonlight he felt certain that it was 
the woman he had seen before, Laughing Mary. 

She turned in at the gate and came hurrying 
up the path, but she did not reach the door. Two 
men followed her, one lithe and stooping, the 
other tall and moving with great strides — there 
was no doubt in Hugh’s mind that it was Half- 
Breed Jake. He seized the woman by the shoul- 
der and whirled her about just as, very plainly, 
she was on the point of mounting the doorstep 


56 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

and knocking at the door. There followed an 
altercation, whispered, yet so full of fierceness 
and passionate gesture that Hugh, at his window, 
could feel the fury of their quarrel even there. 
It was almost like watching a dance of shadows, 
so noiseless did they manage to be, although now 
and then he caught a low-voiced sentence, couched 
in guttural Chippewa, and once, to his surprise, 
he heard his own name, spoken very distinctly 
by Laughing Mary. 

She was not smiling now but speaking volubly, 
gesticulating, urging and insisting something, to 
which Jake slowly and determinedly shook his 
head. She kept pointing to the bale of furs still 
under his arm and seemed to be voicing her desire 
with such violence in the face of his continued re- 
fusal that finally, in angry impatience, he raised 
his arm as though to strike her. She winced and 
cowered, but still persisted, advancing her dark 
wrinkled face almost into his to utter her last 
word. Whatever she said seemed to have effect, 
for Jake’s arm dropped to his side and, mutter- 
ing angrily, he stooped down to open his pack and 


Laughing Mary 57 

give her what she demanded. What the coveted 
article was, Hugh could not see, for the Indian 
husband, Kaniska, was standing in the way. 

Then all three went out quickly through the 
gate, as silent and as swift as ghosts. For the 
first time, Hugh noticed that Jake, who walked 
behind, moved with a slight unevenness in his 
giant stride. 

It had grown so late that Hugh in spite of his 
curiosity and excitement was sleepy at last. He 
lay down again, going over and over once more 
the puzzles of the day. What ought he to do? 
What had these strange people to do with him? 
Why did Jethro say that he was the only one to 
go on that impossible errand, why did the fellow 
not go himself ? If there were really a chance of 
his helping the Edmonds boys, Hugh would have 
risked anything gladly, but this plan was such 
absolute madness! No, thought Hugh, he had 
made up his mind, he would not change it again, 
he would go to-morrow. 

He arose at five, packed his belongings and, on 
hearing Linda stirring in the kitchen, went down 


58 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

to explain to her. She heard him through in 
silence and without protest. 

suppose you must know best/’ was her only 
comment. 

When he made an attempt to thank her for all 
her kindness, she refused to listen. 

‘The Edmonds boys are my friends,” she said, 
“and for them I would do much. This was noth- 
ing.” 

She came to the door to bid him good-by and 
stood watching him as he went down the path to 
the gate. The morning mist lay heavy in the 
little valley and stretched upward in wreaths over 
the hills. The air was cold, so that he turned up 
his coat-collar and walked very briskly. Once 
he looked back and saw that Linda Ingmarsson 
had come out to the gate and stood leaning over 
it almost as though she were about to call him 
back. She made no sign, however, so he turned 
once more and walked on toward the station. 
He found that he was early, that the little build- 
ing was still locked and that he must sit down on 
the narrow bench at the edge of the platform and 


Laughing Mary 59 

wait. The mist lifted, little by little, until he 
began to see the miles of blue water, the hills and 
the vast unbroken forest sweeping down to the 
water’s edge. How would it be, he thought with 
a shudder, to be lost in that unending maze of 
green? 

Presently he heard footsteps coming up the 
stairs and around the corner of the building. He 
glanced up quickly and saw that it was Jethro 
Brown again, wearing a dingy straw hat on the 
back of his head and carrying a suitcase. He 
loitered at the other end of the platform and 
would not have come near, but Hugh arose from 
his seat and went straight to him. 

‘‘You must tell me,” he said, “why you thought 
I was the only one to carry that news to Oscar 
Dansk. I have thought of nothing else all 
night.” 

Jethro flushed. 

“I shouldn’t ever have spoken of it at all,” he 
stammered, “I don’t know what possessed me. I 
just got to thinking and felt that something ought 
to be done, that some one ought to go. But I 


6o The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

should not have come to you, of course you 
couldn’t do it.” 

''If I did go,” Hugh persisted, "how would I 
ever find the way?” 

He did not really know himself why he asked 
the question. 

The other turned and pointed. 

"You would follow that road to the top of the 
hill and where it ends you would find a trail that 
runs across the range of forest beyond. It leads 
to a little Chippewa village on Two Rivers ; there’s 
an Indian boy there, Shokatan, who could guide 
you the rest of the way. He got to be quite a 
friend of mine when he came in to the Indian 
school near here and he knows English, though 
he probably won’t be willing to speak it now. I 
could give you a letter and I know he would help 
you.” 

It was plain that Jethro had thought it all out. 

Hugh still stood pondering. 

"Why don’t any of the Swedes go?” he asked, 
"aren’t they willing?” 

"They are willing enough,” Jethro returned. 


Laughing Mary 6i 

''but they have given up. They say there is no 
hope. Once they have made up their minds there 
is no changing them.'’ 

"And why," questioned Hugh bluntly, "don't 
you go yourself ?" 

"Oh," Jethro answered simply, "I forgot to tell 
you that. Of course I would go only I am leav- 
ing to-day. I've enlisted. I've got my orders. 
I'm going to Fort Snelling." 

"Oh," cried Hugh, "how did you manage? 
My father wouldn't let me. How old are you?" 

"I am a little under age but I made them take 
me," replied Jethro. "There wasn't much 
trouble about getting consent, I haven't any one 
that my going would make any difference to." 

Hugh’s whole view of the affair underwent a 
sudden and tremendous change. If Jethro was 
going to the war, why, that made everything dif- 
ferent! He must think and think quickly, for, 
far off among the hills, he heard the whistle of 
the approaching train. 

"Well," Jethro said, breaking into his reverie, 
"I will be taking the forward coach when the 


62 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

train comes in, so I may not see you again. 
Good-by.” 

He reached out his huge, red hand and Hugh 
shook it, still half dazed. 

‘'Did you write that letter to the Indian?” he 
said, and, as the other nodded, “Give it to me. 
I haven’t decided yet but I — I might need it.” 

Jethro pulled a paper from his pocket and 
handed it to him. 

“No, no,” he cried, immediately after, “it is 
not the right thing at all for you to go. Do not 
think about it again. Here’s the train. Good- 
by.” 

“Good-by,” said Hugh, still in doubt, “good-by 
and good luck.” 

Jethro strode away down the platform just as 
the big locomotive came thundering in. Hugh 
was turning slowly toward the Pullman coaches 
at the further end when he heard quick short 
footsteps behind him and little Carl Ingmarsson 
very red and breathless came panting up. 

“I wanted to say good-by,” he said ; “we never 
knew you were going until Mother told us.” 


Laughing Mary 63 

He laid his square, firm little hand in Hugh’s. 

^'It was good of you to come,” returned Hugh. 
^'What did your mother say about my going?” 

''She didn’t say much,” Carl replied, "I think 
she had been crying.” 

"Crying?” echoed Hugh; "why?” This 
seemed the most amazing thing of all the sur- 
prises that had come to him. 

"I think she didn’t want you to go,” the little 
boy answered, "I don’t understand it. She 
doesn’t often cry.” 

So there was more than one person who wanted 
him to help and was confident of his success. 
And even Half-Breed Jake and Laughing Mary 
seemed to feel that he was in some way involved 
in the matter. Should he go or stay ? Time was 
passing. 

The grinning porter looked at him doubtfully, 
then picked up his stool and climbed up the steps 
of the last car. The long train, with its shining 
brass rails, hooded vestibules and sleepy passen- 
gers peering from the windows, looked as though 
it had come from another world than this wild. 


64 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

wooded country where such strange things could 
come to pass. The brakeman glanced inquir- 
ingly over his shoulder and shouted, 

‘‘All aboard!’’ 

The bell began to jangle, the wheels creaked 
and groaned, the heavy cars slowly gathered 
headway — there was still time to run and catch 
the last step, but Hugh did not move. The line 
of cars, with a final echoing whistle, slid away 
into the morning mist and disappeared behind 
the shoulder of a hill, leaving him behind, com- 
mitted at last to his adventure. 


CHAPTER IV 


THE HEART OF THE FOREST 



INDA INGMARSSON was standing at the 


^ door when Hugh and Carl came up the path. 
She did not seem to be at all surprised to see him. 

/T met Jethro Brown at the station/' he ex- 
plained briefly. ^'He told me, oh, quite a lot of 
things. I decided not to take the train, to go 
into the woods instead." 

Linda shook her head gravely. 

‘T think I know what he told you," she said. 
‘Tt is a mad plan. You ought not to go." 

''But I'm going," returned Hugh, and she 
smiled. 

"Yes, I believe you are going," she answered, 
"and perhaps I would not stop you if I could." 

The children came clattering in and Ingmars- 
son appeared by the door, so there was no more 
discussion just then. Later, however, when the 


66 


The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

various members of the family had set off to 
work or to school, Linda came up to Hugh’s room 
bringing an armful of things for him, a pack such 
as hunters carry, heavy boots, thick wool socks, 
a mackinaw coat. 

''You will need all these,’’ she said. "It may 
be that you will be gone some time.” 

She advised him as to which of his own pos- 
sessions were the most necessary to take with him 
and showed him how to pack them in the smallest 
possible space. 

"Leave all of your other things here,” she di- 
rected, "and most of your money, too; you will 
have little need of it where you are going and — 
you might meet Half-Breed Jake in the forest.” 

"Does he do that kind of stealing too?” Hugh 
asked. 

"He does every kind,” was her brief reply. 

Hugh accomplished the rest of his prepara- 
tions in silence except for one question. 

"Is your brother Oscar old?” he inquired. 

Linda laughed. 

"I am not so very old myself,” she answered. 


The Heart of the Forest 67 

''and he is much younger than I, not a great deal 
older than you, I should think. You are not 
quite a grown man yet, and he has only just 
ceased being a boy. That is all the difference.’’ 

She put the last thing into his pack and helped 
him to pull the straps tight. 

"We are ready now,” she said, "and I know 
you would like to go at once, but it is not wise. 
It is a long day’s journey even to Two Rivers, and 
if you set out now you could not reach there until 
hours after midnight. So you had better start 
at daylight to-morrow.” 

It was before dawn next day when she knocked 
softly at his door. When he had slipped down- 
stairs and had a hasty breakfast in the kitchen, 
she went out upon the steps with him and gave 
him the most explicit directions as to how he was 
to go. She had never been so far as Jasper Peak 
or the end of the lake where her brother lived, 
but she could tell him, almost mile by mile, the 
way to the Indian encampment where the Chip- 
pewa boy, Shokatan, could put him on the next 
stage of his journey. 


68 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

'^You should not go,” she said again at the last, 
but the light of excitement danced in her eyes as 
plainly as in Hugh’s. 

He shouldered his pack, adjusted the straps 
and held out his hand to say good-by. The spot- 
less house, as he looked about it for the last time, 
seemed a very homelike little place even though 
he had known it for only a day. The white, 
scrubbed floor, the bright blue cupboard, the pic- 
ture on the wall of the Edmonds boys and their 
great white dog — how soon would he see them all 
again ? 

Even in early-rising Rudolm there was no one 
yet abroad to see him go. He went out the gate, 
past a half dozen houses, across a stretch of 
meadow, came out at last upon the road, Oscar’s 
road, and set off up the hill. 

The sun was just coming up over the ridge 
to the eastward, the birds were beginning to chirp 
in the thickets and the tall, scattered pine trees 
were bowing their heads in the autumn wind. 
Very little of all this did Hugh notice for he had 
eyes of wonder and interest only for the road 


The Heart of the Forest 69 

upon which he was traveling. It wound up the 
slope, grass-grown in many places, as though 
very few feet had trodden it in the past year. It 
was built of stone and gravel, well built too, as he 
could easily perceive, for it mounted the hillside 
in easy grades with wide, even curves, and it still 
showed the weed-filled ditches that had been dug 
to drain it and it spanned a little stream on a high, 
stout bridge. Hugh tramped on up the slope, 
crossed the summit of the hill and was about to 
descend on the other side when — 

‘'Oh he cried suddenly and stood still in sur- 
prise. 

He had known that the road would not carry 
him far, but he had not realized that it would end 
as abruptly as though sheared off with a knife. 
The dense wall of trees and underbrush that had 
hemmed it in on both sides had closed together 
before him and completely blocked the way. He 
could actually see the sharp line where the gravel 
roadbed ended and the soft leaf-mold began, 
while just before him he spied in the grass a 
broken ax and a rusty pick, as though the last 


JO The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

workman had ceased his labors so suddenly as 
to have even left his tools. Hugh had to stand 
and look for some minutes before he could dis- 
tinguish the narrow trail threading its way off 
among the trees, the path that he must now fol- 
low. 

Down the hillside it led him, over great tree 
trunks, under low-hanging branches, through 
thickets that seemed almost impenetrable. The 
noonday sun began to feel hot, even among the 
trees, and the air seemed close and heavy as he 
progressed further and further into the valley. 
It was a great relief to hear suddenly the cool 
patter of what sounded like falling water and a 
great disappointment to find that it came only 
from a grove of quaking aspen trees where the 
wind among the leaves made just the sound of 
rain. Once past these, however, the going was a 
little easier, for on the next hill the birches and 
poplars gave way to solid pine forest and the 
trail led upward between black trunks and over 
a carpet of fallen needles. He came out, at last, 
on the summit of the slope and stopped a moment 


The Heart of the Forest 71 

to look back. Nothing but hills beyond hills, for- 
est beyond forest could be seen ; the little town of 
Rudolm had utterly disappeared. Only a sharp 
glint of blue at the end of the valley and the ris- 
ing bulk of the mountain to the westward showed 
the familiar landmarks of Red Lake and Jasper 
Peak. 

He sat down here to eat his lunch and to rest 
a little, for his knees were beginning to weary and 
the pack was heavy on his unaccustomed shoul- 
ders. When he arose at length and trudged on 
he found that he could no longer make such good 
time; he had perhaps set too fast a pace at first 
and worn himself out too soon. It was a long, 
long way over the next ridge and down into the 
valley beyond, so long that the sun had disap- 
peared and the hollows were beginning to fill with 
shadow when he came finally to the foot of the 
steep incline. The long, gray northern twilight 
held, however, so that he had no real difficulty 
in following the trail, faint as it was, that led 
him to the edge of a stream, skirted its bank and 
brought him, just as heavy darkness fell, within 


72 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

sight of a row of fires that must belong to the 
Chippewa encampment. 

Indian dwellings are far more picturesque than 
imposing, so at least Hugh concluded as he ap- 
proached the huddle of teepees, mere shelters of 
skins and blankets stretched over birch poles. A 
woman was cooking by the nearest fire; she sat 
back upon her heels and gazed at him stolidly, 
but made no answer when he asked for the boy 
Shokatan. Some children came crawling out 
from one of the tents and also stared at him but 
not a word could he get from them. He stood 
irresolute, not quite knowing what to do, when 
another squaw, who sat at the second fire, holding 
a baby, suddenly turned and greeted him with a 
strange, vacant smile, which he recognized at 
once as Laughing Mary’s. Again he asked for 
Shokatan, and she pointed silently at a boy who 
was coming toward him from the edge of the 
stream where he had evidently been fishing. 

‘‘Jethro Brown sent me to you and gave me 
this letter,” began Hugh, but he received no an- 
swer, only the same stolid stare. The boy held 


73 


The Heart of the Forest 

out his hand for the paper, turned it over and 
over without making even a pretense of reading 
it, then grunted, ‘'No English,’’ and, turning, 
walked away. 

It was an awkward moment for Hugh and a 
most discouraging one. Apparently he was to 
get no help here for the continuing of his journey, 
while the thought of trying to go back, through 
the dark, in his present weary state was quite 
too appalling. Almost without thinking, he un- 
buckled his pack, laid it down on the grass and 
seated himself at the nearest fire. Two children 
and an old man moved over to make room for 
him, yet no one said a word or regarded his pres- 
ence with the least surprise. Presently a woman, 
he thought it was Laughing Mary, but in the un- 
certain light could not make sure, came over and 
put down some food before him. 

He was hungry enough to have eaten anything, 
but he thought then and long afterward that it 
was just as well that he should never know of 
what that savory stew was made. It might be — 
no, he concluded firmly, he would make no guess 


74 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

as to what it was — nectar and ambrosia was what 
it tasted like and he ate it all. Afterward he 
went down to the river to wash his hands and to 
have a long drink of the cool, running water. 
Looking back at the camp he thought what a curi- 
ous picture it made with the leaping fires, the 
shadowy teepees and the black figures moving 
noiselessly to and fro. 

Somebody startled him by touching his arm as 
he sat staring. It was the boy, Shokatan, carry- 
ing Hugh's pack which he had left beside the fire. 
Not a word did the Indian speak, but he motioned 
to a canoe that lay bottom upward on the grassy 
bank, and, by a grunt, indicated that he wished 
Hugh's help in lifting it. With some wonder, 
Hugh arose to assist him, and in a moment had 
set it afloat on the rippling shallows of the little 
stream. The Indian produced two paddles and 
slipped into his place in the stern ; Hugh laid his 
pack in the bottom of the boat, took up a paddle 
and knelt in the bow, as they launched forth 
through the reeds and out into the current. An- 


75 


The Heart of the Forest 

other stream flowed into the first just below the 
camp, making quite a wide brawling little river 
that swept away into the dark. 

Nothing had yet been said, but Hugh began to 
realize that this was the second stage of his jour- 
ney. Shokatan, feigning complete ignorance of 
all English speech, as is the obstinate Indian habit, 
had nevertheless read the letter unobserved and 
had agreed to help Hugh on his way. Silently 
the canoe slipped out into the stream, was caught 
by the current and with the aid of the two steady 
paddles shot swiftly onward upon its course. 
There was no talk as they sped along, as the drip- 
ping paddles rose and fell and mile after mile of 
river and forest dropped behind them. 

The stars began to come out above them and 
lay reflected in long drifts of shimmering light 
as they crossed a quiet pool. Hugh began to 
see more and more clearly the white birches on 
the shore, the reeds and rocking lily-pads and the 
two lines of ripples that slanted outward from 
their swiftly moving bow. There was a long. 


76 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

long reach of steady paddling while the river 
grew ever wider in its twisted course toward the 
lake. 

Hugh's blade rose and dipped with the weary 
regularity of a machine and his eyes were falling 
to with sleepiness. But he was startled suddenly 
broad awake when they rounded a sharp bend and 
came full upon a gigantic moose, its great shoul- 
ders, bearded chin and wide sweep of antlers 
outlined sharp and black against the starlit water. 
The huge creature stood knee deep in the cool 
flood, a long string of wet lily pads still hanging 
from its dripping jaw. It looked so big as to 
seem scarcely real and, for a second, stood as still 
as though carved in stone. Then, with so 
mighty a splashing that the spent waves rocked 
the canoe, the great beast plunged to the shore, 
scrambled up the bank and was off through the 
forest with a stamping and crashing that could 
have been heard a mile away. 

'‘Ah-h-h — !" sighed Hugh, letting out the 
breath that excitement had imprisoned within 
him for a full minute. 


The Heart of the Forest 77 

Again they went on in silence, the so and of the 
paddle behind Hugh being the only proof that 
he was not alone in this whole forest-covered 
world. Past one curve and then another they 
went, until they began to hear a new sound ahead 
of them, a dull muffled roar that he did not in 
the least understand. He was about to ask what 
it was when the Indian spoke at last, a single 
inarticulate word which was evidently meant as a 
warning. For in an instant they began to move 
faster and faster, the sound grew louder, and 
they plunged, all in one breathless second, down 
a foaming slope of shouting white rapids. Great 
black bowlders shouldered up through the water, 
threatening them in a thousand directions, but 
somehow the frail canoe threaded its way like 
magic in and out among the rocks and came safe 
into the calm pool below. Before Hugh could 
speak they had swept into another reach of toss- 
ing water and then another, the canoe staggering 
back and forth in the furious current, but coming 
finally out into the quiet stream again. 

Then at last, warmed to friendliness perhaps 


78 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

by Hugh’s calm acceptance of the dangers of the 
rapids, the Indian behind him spoke. His Eng- 
lish, learned at the Indian school near Rudolm, 
was nearly as good as Hugh’s own, yet had the 
guttural burr of all Chippewa speech. 

‘‘You are going to Oscar Dansk’s?” he asked. 

“I wish to,” answered Hugh without looking 
around. “Can you take me there ?” 

“No,” was the immediate answer; “the white 
deer has been seen in the woods near Jasper Peak 
and we Chippewas will not go where the white 
deer goes.” 

“But I must go on,” insisted Hugh. “How 
can I ever find the way without you?” 

“I will take you to the lake,” was the reply, 
“and around Harbin’s Channel into the upper end 
of the lake you can paddle alone. You can keep 
this canoe ; it belongs to Oscar Dansk ; he left it at 
Two Rivers, for his last journey he made over- 
land.” 

They went on and on, until Hugh, knowing 
long since that it was past midnight, began to feel 
that morning must be close at hand. They 


79 


The Heart of the Forest 

passed more rapids, threaded narrow stretches of 
river, then wider ones, but still the dark held 
and the journey seemed never to come to an end. 
At last the Indian spoke again. 

^That squaw whom you whites call Laughing 
Mary told me to tell you, I do not know why, that 
the man of Jasper Peak passed through Two 
Rivers only a few hours before you, and must be 
camping in these woods. I think that is his fire 
now.” 

Far off through the black tree trunks there 
could be seen a faint red glare that grew brighter 
as they went along. 

‘‘Do you mean Half-Breed Jake?” inquired 
Hugh anxiously. “Was he alone?” 

“There were two Indians with him,” replied 
Shokatan. “Yes, that is their camp. It is better 
that they should not see us go by.” 

They came nearer, saw the firelight flickering 
among the trees, saw two black figures stretched 
upon the ground rolled in their blankets and 
sound asleep. One man only was sitting upright, 
his back against a pine, his face toward the 


8o The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

stream, but he, too, seemed wrapped in deepest 
slumber. The canoe floated so slowly that it 
seemed scarcely moving, the Indian's paddle 
dipped and dipped again without a sound. Foot 
by foot they worked their way along, skirting the 
bank where the shadows lay, sliding past like 
shadows themselves. The fire flared high, one of 
the burning logs broke and settled with a crash, 
the man beside it awoke. Both boys held their 
breath, while the canoe floated with the current ; 
slowly, slowly it crawled into the thick pool of 
shade cast by a big maple that overhung the bank. 
The man, it was the Indian Kaniska, listened as 
though vaguely conscious that something was 
stirring, stooped to mend the fire, then stopped 
to listen again and to peer into the dark. Almost 
imperceptibly the canoe moved on, was swallowed 
up in denser shadow, slipped past a bend in the 
stream and left the camp out of sight. 

The moment of danger had roused Hugh into 
full wakefulness now and, although he was un- 
believably weary, he bent to his paddling with 
redoubled energy. The trees seemed to recede 


The Heart of the Forest 8i 

on either hand, showing overhead a myriad of 
stars, the river widened and they came out at last 
on the vast dark flood of the open lake. The 
canoe’s bow wavered a little, then turned toward 
shore where Shokatan, grasping an overhanging 
branch, pulled it up to the bank and stepped out. 

‘‘The rest of the way you go alone,” he said. 
‘^Around that point, through the channel, then 
when you are in the open lake again make for 
the nearest sandy beach. You will see Oscar 
Dansk’s house on the hill above.” 

Before Hugh could speak, to protest against 
being left, to thank the Indian for his help, he had 
pushed out the boat again and had disappeared 
into the underbrush. Wearily the boy took up 
his paddle once more and drove the canoe stead- 
ily onward parallel to the wooded shore. 

He was thinking of what might be before him 
and of the strange journey that lay behind, but 
for the most part his tired brain was concentrated 
on the rise and dip, rise and dip of the paddle. 
One detail of his night’s adventures alone seemed 
to stand out in his mind, only because it was the 


82 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

one thing of all others that he could not under- 
stand. When, at Two Rivers, Laughing Mary 
had turned to greet him in the firelight, he had 
noticed that her baby was wrapped in something 
brownish yellow, that even in the half darkness 
he was certain must be the brown bear-cub’s skin. 
He was too worn out either to reason the matter 
out or to drop it entirely from his mind. 

Above him the stars were paling at last and the 
sky growing gray. He came to the headland 
where the lake seemed suddenly to end and where 
Jasper Peak, which towered directly over him 
now, sent a long rocky spur down to the water’s 
edge. Through Harbin’s Channel he crept, out 
into the second stretch of open water, a wide ex- 
panse, beginning to show blue instead of gray as 
the sky grew brighter. Over at his right he 
could see a little inlet and a line of sandy beach, 
above it a steep wooded hill with a cottage at the 
very summit. The miles of woods beyond, the 
bays and bold capes that bounded the lake, the 
undiscovered country claimed by the Pirate of 
Jasper Peak, for these he had no eyes and no 


The Heart of the Forest 83 

interest as he struggled wearily toward his jour- 
ney's end. 

Gently the canoe grounded its bow upon the 
sand, just where a narrow trail led off among the 
trees and up the hill. With a great sigh of relief, 
Hugh stepped ashore, shouldered his pack, and 
went slowly up through the dawn to his first meet- 
ing with Oscar Dansk. 


CHAPTER V 


OSCAR DANSK 

H ugh walked very slowly as he made his 
way up the path, for he was worn out, 
weary enough to drop by the wayside and sleep 
there for half a day. He was stiff from kneeling 
all night in the canoe, his shoulders were lame 
from the weight of his pack and from the long 
miles of paddling, his brain whirled from want 
of sleep. On he trudged, past the groups of over- 
hanging maples, scarlet and gold after the au- 
tumn frosts, past a huge mass of red jasper rock 
with a spring bubbling out at the foot of it, up 
the hill at last and to the open space where the 
cottage stood. 

It was a little square building of logs, chinked 
with plaster, with two small sheds behind it and 
a chimney of rough field stones. Small and rude 
as the cottage seemed, it had the same air of 
84 


Oscar Dansk 


8s 

neatness and homely comfort that Hugh had no- 
ticed about the little Swedish houses in Rudolm. 
A plume of smoke was rising from the chimney 
and, at the open window, a white curtain was 
blowing in the morning wind. Before he reached 
the door, it opened and Oscar Dansk came out 
upon the wide stone step. The moment their eyes 
met Hugh knew they were to become fast friends. 

There seemed no more natural thing in the 
world than to sit down upon the doorstep — 
Hugh’s tired legs could not have carried him far- 
ther — and tell Oscar immediately all about why 
he had come. The other seemed to understand 
at once just what had happened, just why Hugh 
had come to find him and just what he himself 
was expected to do. He shook his head gravely 
when he heard how long the Edmonds boys had 
been gone. 

''Five days when you first heard,” he said; 
"that makes seven now and another night. It is 
bad, but not hopeless. If they are alive we will 
find them.” 

"Your sister thinks they are alive,” repeated 


86 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

Hugh, for he had already spoken of Linda’s the- 
ory about the dog. 

''Yes,” replied Oscar, "I know that Nicholas, if 
anything had happened to his masters, I am cer- 
tain he would have come back. I think Linda is 
right.” 

Hugh, half blind with weariness as he was, had 
already begun to notice how like his sister Oscar 
was. All things that were attractive in her were 
present in Oscar, with much more besides. 
There was fire in his blue eyes where hers held 
only kindliness, there was no heaviness, nor any 
sadness in his expression, but spirit and courage 
and love of high adventure. He was taller and 
straighter than Linda, also, with more clear-cut 
features. As he sat on the doorstone, with the 
sun shining on his bright fair hair, and his strong 
hands clasped upon his knee, he looked as though 
he were indeed, as Jethro had said, "a person who 
could see further than others.” 

"It is not right,” he said at last, "for me to let 
you sit here talking, when the first thing you 


Oscar Dansk 87 

should do is to have breakfast and then sleep the 
clock around.’’ 

He got up and led the way into the cottage, 
with Hugh following eagerly, curious to see what 
sort of an abode it was. There were two tiny 
rooms inside with so wide a doorway between 
that they were practically one. Linda Ingmars- 
son’s fingers must surely have sewed those cur- 
tains at the windows, the braided rugs on the 
floor and the blue and white quilts on the two 
narrow bunks. She must also have given her 
brother the pot of red geraniums that stood on 
the sill of the sunniest window. But she had 
never seen the little log cottage, so she could not 
have been responsible for the spotless cleanliness 
of everything. 

Never before had Hugh sat down to such an 
odd breakfast, nor, even at the Indian camp, had 
he ever eaten with such ravenous appetite. There 
was half a partridge stewed in brown gravy, wild 
rice, flapjacks instead of bread, blueberries and, 
strange to say, thick, rich cream. 


88 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

‘The blueberries? Yes, it is pretty late for 
them, but you still can find a few in the hollows,'' 
said Oscar, misunderstanding Hugh’s surprise. 
“Oh, you mean the cream? Why, that is noth- 
ing; I have a cow." 

“But how did she get here?" Hugh persisted. 
“By water, or through the woods ?" 

He thought of the journey that he himself had 
made and decided that, for a four-footed creature, 
both routes were equally impossible. 

“She must have been born hereabouts," Oscar 
answered. “I found her running wild in the 
woods when she was still a calf. I brought her 
home and built her a stable and fed her for a 
month or two and then" — here he indulged in the 
silent chuckle that Hugh was to learn was his 
only form of laughter — “and then Half-Breed 
Jake sent over to say that she was his." 

“Was she?" Hugh wished to know. He felt a 
great interest in what had occurred between 
Oscar and the pirate. 

“In a way she might have been called so. You 
see, old Mat Henderson had a little farm up on 


Oscar Dansk 


89 

the spur of Jasper Peak, where Jake lives now. 
I don’t know how Henderson got his live stock 
in ; I believe he chartered a little steamer to bring 
them up the lake and through Harbin’s Channel. 
That was before the pirates came; boats do not 
come through there now. Henderson was a queer 
old soul; he had lots of money, people said, and 
just came away up here so that he could live alone. 
The next thing we knew Half-Breed Jake and 
some Indians were living on the place, claiming 
that Henderson had sold it to them and that very 
soon after the sale — he had died. There wasn’t 
anything to be proved, so we had to let it go. 
But we’ll know some day.” 

He had spoken quietly until the last words, 
when his tone turned suddenly to bitter earnest- 
ness and he dropped his big sunburned hand upon 
the table with such force that the tin plates 
danced in their places. His clear face clouded 
with anger and he sat silent, staring out through 
the little window. Hugh was almost frightened 
at the sudden sternness of his face. 

‘‘But the cow?” he hinted gently. 


90 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

Oscar hesitated, then the grimness of his face 
relaxed and he smiled. 

‘They cared for Henderson’s stock after a 
fashion,” he said, “for they knew it might be a 
starvation winter for them otherwise. The calf 
they evidently did not want to feed and turned it 
out into the woods. When they feared that I 
would get some good out of it they came over to 
fetch it. But they went home empty-handed.” 

Hugh had a quick recollection of Half-Breed 
Jake standing in the postoffice with the brown 
bear’s skin in his hand and of the shrinking 
claimant. Ole Peterson, slipping away into a cor- 
ner. There were not many people, he thought, 
who could successfully dispute a question of own- 
ership with the Pirate of Jasper Peak. 

He had finished his breakfast and began to 
feel, once more, an overwhelming sleepiness. In 
spite of the brightness of the morning sun making 
squares upon the floor, in spite of the pressing 
nature of his errand and the mystery of the green 
forest outside, his eyes were dropping shut. One 


Oscar Dansk 


91 

question, however, loomed so large in his mind 
that it must be spoken. 

wish you would tell me, Oscar/’ he said, the 
name coming as readily to his tongue as though 
the friendship were years old, wish I knew 
why you choose to live here all alone.” 

The man’s face flushed a little under his sun- 
burn and his blue eyes, once again, took on that 
stern look. 

‘Tt is too long a story, Hugh,” was all he an- 
swered. ‘‘Before I tell you about it you must 
have your sleep.” 

The hands of the big Swedish clock in the cor- 
ner of Oscar’s kitchen must have come very near 
to making a complete round before Hugh awoke. 
He had been dreaming so vividly that for a mo- 
ment he was bewildered and sat up rubbing his 
eyes and wondering where he was. He remem- 
bered in a moment, however, and scrambled 
quickly out of bed. The cottage was quite silent 
save for the ticking of the clock and the crackling 
of the fire on the hearth. Hugh went to the little 


92 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

window at the foot of his bunk and looked out. 
When he had come up the trail that morning he 
had noticed little save that the hillside was steep 
and the forest dense, but now that he could see 
across the little plateau upon which the cottage 
stood and down into the next valley, he looked 
and looked again. 

The country through which he had come on his 
journey from Rudolm had seemed to him all alike, 
one narrow ravine after another with close tan- 
gled woods, precipitous slopes and rocky summits 
in endless succession. But here he was looking 
out into a broad green basin where the hills drew 
back from the lake in a gigantic semicircle, leav- 
ing the half-wooded slope to drop gently to wide 
green meadows and a winding stream. Over to 
the north the hills closed in a little, but still left a 
broad valley through which flowed away toward 
Canada the river that was the lake’s outlet. 
Groups of trees extended downward from the 
woods and stood knee deep in the wild grass of 
the sloping meadows. A cheerful tinkle sounded 
below the cottage, heralding the fact that Oscar 


Oscar Dansk 


93 

was driving up his cow from the luxuriant pas- 
ture land, to be stabled for the night. 

‘It is a nice place,” thought Hugh. “I do not 
wonder Oscar likes to live here, but — well, win- 
ters must be pretty long and lonely.” 

Oscar came in presently and they had supper 
before the blazing fire, a meal as odd and deli- 
cious as breakfast had been. After supper there 
was much work to be done in which Hugh lent a 
hand, wood to be cut and carried in, water to be 
fetched from the spring half way down the hill, 
the cow, Hulda, to be fed and milked. The long 
twilight was nearly at an end and Hugh already 
feeling sleepy again before they finished at last. 
Oscar, it seemed, had spent most of the day in 
searching the nearest hillsides for traces of John 
Edmonds and his brother, but had to report blank 
failure so far. 

“But if they are alive they are in this region,” 
he said. “They would not have gone far north, 
for the woods and swamps in that direction are 
almost impassable. Nor, if Edmonds wanted to 
hide for any reason, would he go toward the east 


94 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

end of Red Lake where there are more settle- 
ments and the Indian reservations.” 

He brought out a rude map made evidently by 
himself, showing in rough drawing the western 
end of the lake and the watercourses. 

'We will divide it off into squares,” he said, 
"and search one square of country every day. 
Then, if we don’t find where they are, we will at 
least know where they are not. We will begin 
with this one to-morrow.” 

"Wouldn’t it be quicker just to follow up the 
main streams and the most likely valleys first?” 
asked Hugh. 

Oscar was slowly rolling up the map and put- 
ting it in its place. 

"It would be quicker — and we might miss them 
on the way,” he said. "If we are to do the thing 
thoroughly, we had better not hurry too much.” 

Hugh was to learn that this was Oscar’s 
method of doing all things. He did not agree 
just then that it was the best, but, on looking back 
afterward, he wondered at his own stupidity. 


Oscar Dansk 


95 

‘Will we meet Half-Breed Jake, do you think?’' 
was all he asked, however. 

“No,” returned Oscar, “that fe**ow and his In- 
dian friends are nearly always away at this time 
of year. You say you saw them in the woods, 
but they must have gone back again, for there 
has not been a sign of life about their cabin. His 
place is over opposite us on the spur of Jasper 
Peak; you can see it plainly enough by daylight. 
Every season about this time they go down-State 
to sell their furs and have a final spree before they 
come back for the winter. He is an ugly neigh- 
bor, Half-Breed Jake is, when he has just had his 
fling. He does not ever like to stay away very 
long, for he likes to watch the place and drive 
out any one that might try to settle hereabouts.” 

“But he hasn’t driven you out,” said Hugh. 
“Has he tried?” 

“Oh, yes, he has tried,” replied Oscar cheer- 
fully, “but he hasn’t succeeded yet.” 

They set out very early the next morning, hav- 
ing arisen before sun-up to get their work done 


96 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

and to cook the dinner they were to carry with 
them. Oscar took down his spare rifle from 
where it hung upon the wall and gave it to Hugh. 

‘‘You may have a chance at a partridge or even 
a deer/' he said. “You had better take it along." 

They walked down past the spring into the 
thickly wooded ravine with its little stream that 
separated them from Jasper Rock. At one point 
they could look up and see even more plainly than 
from the hill above, the Pirate’s cabin. It was a 
tumbledown log building with a few rude out- 
houses and ragged fences. A black hen rose 
suddenly from a tuft of weeds at their feet and 
ran squawking up the hill toward her unlovely 
home. 

“I hardly know how his stock keeps alive while 
he is gone," observed Oscar, “but the creatures 
are all half wild, anyway, and used to ranging 
the woods and foraging for themselves." 

After they had tramped some distance, Oscar 
decreed that they were to separate. 

“See," he said, showing Hugh the map, “here 
are these two little streams flowing on each side 


Oscar Dansk 


97 


of this hill, and joining where we are now. You 
follow this one, going up and down the slope on 
one side of the ravine to find traces of where the 
.boys might have passed by or camped. When you 
reach the swampy land where the stream rises, 
turn back and come down the other side. Then 
when you get to where the two streams meet, fol- 
low up the other branch in the same way. It will 
take you nearly all day to do that and to come 
back here, where it is easy enough to find the way 
home.’’ 

Hugh agreed to follow these instructions care- 
fully and went off, a good deal elated at being 
trusted to search alone. He found the ravine 
narrow and the goingVery rough. He clambered 
laboriously up and down, up and down, finding 
nothing but some very old deer tracks and the 
footprints of some little wood animals that he 
could not identify. Before long he grew hot and 
rather tired and sat down by the stream to rest. 
He began to wonder if there were not some easier 
way of performing the task and presently decided 
that there was. The valley was so small that he 


98 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

felt he could easily examine both slopes at once; 
then, when he reached the marsh, he could cut 
across the intervening hill and follow the other 
fork down to the point of junction. His journey 
from Rudolm had made him feel quite like an 
experienced woodsman already, so that he felt 
very confident that he had thought of a better 
plan than Oscar's. He pushed on resolutely and 
reached the headwaters of the creek about noon. 
There he ate his lunch, rested a little and then 
turned gayly to clamber up the hill. 

It was a longer and a steeper climb than he had 
bargained for. More than once he thought he 
was at the top and even beginning to descend on 
the other side, only to discover that there was 
another ascent to be made. He went upward for 
what seemed to him an endless time, and began 
to be very weary. At last he reached the summit, 
but found that the trees were so tall and thick that 
he could see no distance even from there, and a 
slight, a very slight doubt began to arise in his 
mind as to whether he had done the wisest thing 
in following a plan of his own. 


Oscar Dansk 


99 


He saw a great mass of rock rising among the 
trees not a quarter of a mile away and decided 
that he had better climb to the top of it and get 
his bearings before going any further. It was a 
hard scramble through the thickets and up the 
side of the giant red bowlder, but Hugh accom- 
plished it in ever increasing haste. He wished 
to assure himself as quickly as possible that all 
his calculations were correct. He was panting 
with hurry and excitement when he came out 
upon the top of the rock and turned his face to- 
ward where Jasper Peak should be. 

Somehow it is rather a terrible thing to look 
for so reliable a landmark as a mountain or a 
lake and not to find it. 

'They must be there, they must be there,’’ he 
kept repeating half aloud ; but, no, there was noth- 
ing to be seen but hills and hills, endless miles of 
green in every direction and all utterly unfa- 
miliar. For a full minute Hugh stood gaping, 
before there came over him the sickening knowl- 
edge that he was lost. 

He had thought the forest beautiful on his 


lOO 


The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

night journey with Shokatan, it had seemed to 
him mysterious, wonderful, teeming with adven- 
ture. But now it seemed only dark, threatening 
and cruel, as though it existed merely to shelter 
dangers and hidden enemies, as though the roll- 
ing hills and valleys swept up to his feet to drown 
him in a sea of green. 

mustn’t get excited,” he kept telling himself, 
must keep my head.” 

But even as he so thought, he knew that his 
brain was reeling and that his bewilderment was 
increasing every moment. 

^'1 will go back just the way I came,” was his 
first plan, but it proved impossible to follow. He 
found traces here and there of where he had 
passed before, yet the way was so twisted and 
uncertain that, after an hour of struggling 
through the underbrush he finally came out on 
the same ridge again and faced the same mass oi 
red rock. He climbed the steep bowlder once 
more to make sure that he had not been mistaken 
and, on seeing again that vast pitiless expanse of 
forest, all calmness suddenly left him. He slid 


Oscar Dansk 


lOI 


down the rock in a wild scramble, landed on all- 
fours among the brambles, picked himself up and 
started down the opposite side of the hill at a run. 

He was quite unconscious of the fact that he 
had dropped Oscar’s rifle and had left it behind 
him. He never had any idea of where he went 
or in what direction. He ran until he could drag 
his leaden feet no longer, then he lay panting 
upon the ground until he could get up and run 
again. Finally he became so exhausted that he 
could only walk and had to stop to rest every 
few minutes, but still he pressed obstinately on, 
determined to get somewhere, anywhere. 

Once he found himself, not knowing how he 
got there, floundering at the edge of a wide marsh 
and noticed footmarks in the soft ground beside 
him as though some great creature of the woods 
had passed there not very long before. The 
prints were very large and clear in the wet earth, 
but he scarcely noticed them so far gone was he 
in weariness and despair. Slowly he dragged 
himself on, past a dense poplar thicket, over a 
dried-up watercourse, up a hill, through the close 


102 


The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

undergrowth at the top — and stood still with a 
cry that was almost a sob. Below him spread a 
wide valley, green and open and full of sunshine, 
at its foot, in exactly the opposite quarter from 
where it should be, lay the shining blue of the 
lake. Oscar’s little house, still in quite the wrong 
direction, stood on the ridge at his right, the 
door open, the curtains flying, the red roof bask- 
ing in the sun. A pleasant home-like tinkle came 
up from the grassy slope below him where the 
contented Hulda was grazing peacefully. 

''GeeT said Hugh and sat down abruptly on 
the grass. ‘"Gee, but Fm glad to see this place 
again !” 

It looked indeed, to his weary desperate eyes, 
like a true bit of Paradise. He thought quickly 
of the name at which he had laughed a little when 
he saw it written in Oscar’s hand upon the map. 
It was, after all, not so much amiss to call the 
valley ‘The Promised Land.” 


CHAPTER VI 


THE PROMISED LAND 

T here was not a great deal said, that night, 
about Hugh’s first experiment as a woods- 
man, for Oscar seemed to be the sort of person 
who knew when it was kinder not to ask questions. 
One look at his white, anxious face when he came 
home long after dark, one glimpse of his smile of 
delight and relief when he found that Hugh had 
returned safely after all, these caused the boy 
enough remorse without the wasting of any 
words. That he had lost Oscar’s rifle was to 
Hugh the bitterest and most irretrievable mishap 
of the whole day. He might tell himself over 
and over that he would replace it when he went 
back to Rudolm, but how soon would that be and 
how desperately might not the weapon be needed 
before that time? 

When they set out again next day, Oscar gave 

103 


104 Pirate of Jasper Peak 

his directions without any added warning that 
this time Hugh had better not improve upon them 
with additions of his own. He trusted the boy 
to carry out his share of the search alone and 
made no comment when this time they met suc- 
cessfully at the place that he had chosen. 

All of that day they searched, and all of the 
next, but with no results. 

^'It is a good thing that Jake is really gone,’’ 
said Oscar, ‘‘for otherwise I would not dare go 
so far and leave the cottage alone. This way we 
can cover twice as much ground and so must 
surely find the boys at last.” 

They went further and further afield each day 
and finally, carrying blankets and provisions, 
they penetrated far to the northward, slept in the 
woods two nights and returned in a wide circle 
that covered the forest for many miles. Foot- 
prints of Indians they found, and of moose and 
deer, but of traces that two white men had 
passed that way, they saw no single one. They 
came home worn and dispirited, each one trying 
to talk cheerfully to raise the hopes of the other. 


The Promised Land 105 

The next day they were too weary to set forth 
again. It was Sunday, a week from the day that 
Hugh had come through the forest from Rudolm. 
The day came somewhat as a surprise to him, for 
he had quite forgotten that there were such things 
as calendars and days of the week. He noticed 
that Oscar slept later that morning and reduced 
the household tasks of both of them to as few 
as possible. He did not however suspect any 
other reason beyond weariness until, at the end 
of the afternoon, he came out to go to the spring 
for water and found his friend seated on the 
doorstone, reading his Bible in the thorough, 
painstaking manner with which he did every- 
thing. 

‘^But how do you know when it is Sunday?’' 
Hugh demanded when Oscar explained that this 
was his weekly custom. 

''Why, I keep count,” he replied, "and then I 
somehow think that I ought to feel that it is Sun- 
day in the air. Doesn’t it look like a Sunday to- 
day?” 

Now that Hugh thought of the matter it did 


io6 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

It was only chance, of course, but the sun was 
mild and clear, the blue lake was like a mirror 
and the flaming trees in the forest unstirred by 
any wind. Even though he knew better, he felt 
that, if he listened intently enough, he might hear 
church bells ring. 

''Aren’t you ever mistaken when you think it 
feels like a Sunday?” Hugh asked curiously. 

"Oh, yes,” Oscar admitted, "I feel that I should 
know, but I don’t. Last year when I went down 
to Rudolm I found that I was three days out and 
had been having Sunday on a Wednesday for a 
month. How Linda laughed at me!” 

"Did you ever know how you happened to lose 
count?” Hugh inquired idly. 

He had sat down upon the doorstep also, where 
he could see, on one side, the open sunlit valley 
and, on the other, the narrow ravine with its little 
stream that ran between them and Jasper Peak. 

"Yes, I knew how I missed count,” Oscar 
answered, smiling a little queerly as he looked 
down at one of his big rough hands. Whether 
he would have gone on to explain is not certain. 


The Promised Land 


107 


for just then another thought drifted into Hugh’s 
mind and he asked another question. 

''You say you are sure that Half-Breed Jake 
is away?” 

"Yes,” returned Oscar. "Why?” 

"Because sometimes I think I see something 
moving about in the clearing near their house.” 

"But I have looked for days for any sign of life 
there and have seen nothing,” Oscar insisted. 
"Perhaps you saw their chickens or their cow. 
They are usually gone at this time of year, but 
yet, I do not understand it. If Jake had anything 
to do with the Edmonds boys’ disappearance — 
and I am certain he had — he would be staying. 
And you say you saw him in the woods. No, I do 
not understand it. Perhaps he is in Rudolm 
helping still to spread the report that John Ed- 
monds’ accounts are short and that he ran 
away.” 

"Do you think we will ever find them ?” Hugh 
asked, the discouragement of the whole week sud- 
denly welling up in his voice. 

"I do not know,” Oscar admitted, yet trying 


io8 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

to speak cheerfully. “We can only go on looking 
until we make sure it is hopeless/' 

He closed his book since Hugh’s continued 
questions had evidently made reading impossible. 
They sat together looking down the valley, so 
green and quiet in the sun. A lovely place, but 
a very lonely one, Hugh was thinking. 

“I should think you would have a dog, Oscar," 
he observed aloud. “It would be such company 
for you." 

The grimness of Oscar’s tone as he answered 
startled Hugh into turning square about. 

“I had one," he said, “and Jake killed him." 

“What," exclaimed the boy, “are they so bad 
as that?" 

“They are as bad as anything you can think 
of," his friend answered. 

He looked down again at his hand and Hugh 
noticed that over the back of it ran a long puck- 
ered scar that extended upward under his sleeve. 

“That was the time when I lost count of Sun- 
day," Oscar went on. “It was before I had been 
here very long and Jake and his friends were 


The Promised Land 109 

bound to run me out. You see I am proving 
up on a claim to this land; I have to live here just 
so long, build a house and keep up a certain 
amount of cultivation. They thought that if they 
could drive me away and burn down the cottage 
they could jump the claim. They know better 
now.’’ 

‘Was it — was it hard to teach them better?” 
Hugh inquired eagerly. 

“It took me three days, no, four or five, I never 
quite knew. They lay in the woods at the edge 
of the clearing and shot whenever I came near 
the door or window. See there,” he laid his 
finger upon a rough groove that showed in the 
window ledge, “that is some of their work and 
there are more marks around the door and even 
inside. Little Hendrik — that was the dog — and 
I stood the siege for two days; he was a great 
help, for he waked me twice in the night when I 
had dropped asleep and the Indians were stealing 
across the clearing. We stood them off easily 
enough for a while, but it got to be bad when our 
water gave out.” 


no 


The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

Oscar told the story as calmly as though it 
concerned some one quite other than himself. 
He would indeed have dropped the narrative 
there had Hugh not urged him on with impatient 
questions. 

''Yes, by the third day we were badly off. So 
when it was twilight I let little Hendrik out to go 
down to the spring and drink. Would you think 
it mattered to them whether a little black dog 
lived or not? They knew that I — I liked him a 
good deal, I suppose, for they killed him halfway 
across the clearing. I heard a shot and a yelp 
and ran out to him, but when I got there he was 
dead." 

"You ran out? Didn't they shoot at you?" 
Hugh exclaimed. 

"Yes, and hit me too, but I didn't even notice 
it at the time. I carried little Hendrik back, and 
if I was determined to hold out before, I was a 
hundred times more determined then. It rained 
that night and I caught a little water in a bucket 
by the window, so I had that to go on, but I never 
really knew quite how long the fight lasted. The 


The Promised Land 


III 


bullet had plowed across the back of my hand 
and along my arm and had broken the bone just 
above the elbow. It got very sore and made me 
lightheaded, so for a while it seemed to be al- 
ways glaring daytime and for a while always 
night. And then I seemed to wake up from a 
long sleep and found the sun just coming up and 
a fresh wind blowing off the lake and the pirates 
gone. The clock had run down and I had lost 
the place on the calendar and that was how I got 
Sunday three days wrong.’’ 

‘'And Jake and the Indians, did they all get 
away?” 

“There were seven that came, and it seemed to 
me that I could still count seven afterward where 
I saw them walking around their cabin over there. 
But I heard when I went to Rudolm that there 
was not a sound man amongst them, and that 
two of them had got enough of pirating forever 
and did not come back to these parts. And while 
it is pretty hard to see for certain, I believe Jake 
limps still.” 

“I think he does,” said Hugh, remembering 


II2 


The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

that tall figure striding away in the moonlight 
down Rudolm’s single street. 

‘‘Over yonder under that maple/’ continued 
Oscar, “is where I buried little Hendrik, so now 
I have no company but Hulda. She is not much 
good to talk to, Hulda isn’t, but she is a nice cow 
in her way. It has been good to have you here, 
Hugh, for it has been a little lonely since little 
Hendrik was gone.” 

He laid his scarred hand on Hugh’s knee and 
looked very steadily out across the hills. Hugh 
sat very straight, staring at the Pirate’s house 
with new and fascinated interest, thinking very 
deeply. Presently he broke out again. 

“Oscar,” he said, “why do you live here all 
alone? You are in danger, you are not happy, 
what good is it going to do you in the end?” 

His friend answered with a little hesitation, 
his words coming almost shyly at first, but gradu- 
ally gathering headway as he put into speech the 
thought that possessed his whole heart. 

“It is on account of those people back in Ru- 
dolm. They, and my father with them, came 


The Promised Land 


113 

over from Sweden, thinking, like children in a 
fairy tale, that they were coming to a new world 
where they were to be rich and happy always. 
My father was the biggest man amongst them, I 
think it must have been he who persuaded them to 
come. He was so bitterly unhappy afterward 
to see how poor and disappointed they were. He 
gave me the best education he could and encour- 
aged me to work for an even better one after he 
died; he said more than once that he hoped I could 
help his comrades since he never could.’’ 

'‘How did they find such a place as Rudolm to 
come to ?” Hugh asked. 

"A good many Swedes had settled in this part 
of the country, for it is like their own, the same 
sort of hills and woods full of birch trees and 
lakes and little rivers. And there was at that 
time a great cry that these mountains were fabu- 
lously rich in iron, some even said in gold and 
silver, but the iron was thrilling enough. All 
who could came flocking into Rudolm valley to 
stake out a claim or to buy one, expecting to grow 
rich in a single night. My father spent all the 


1 14 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

money he had from selling his farm in Sweden 
to buy a few stony acres — where now Linda and 
her children work all day long to cut the 
hay.” 

''And there were no mines?” 

"A few, one or two that were worth working 
if one had the money to put into them. Some 
millionaire or other owns what there are, and 
those Swedes who spent everything they had to 
buy themselves a hole in the ground, they work 
for him and live as best they can.” 

"Why didn’t they all go back to Sweden 
again?” Hugh inquired. 

"They were too proud,” said Oscar. "Would 
it be easy, do you think, after your whole village 
had turned out to do you honor, after your gate- 
way had been dressed with wreaths and branches 
and all your neighbors had come in to wish you 
good-by and good luck and to envy you a little, 
in a friendly way, for your boldness and spirit in 
going to America to make your fortune, would 
it be easy to go back and say you were ruined? 
No, one and all of them went stubbornly to work 


The Promised Land 


115 

and never a complaint went back to the Old 
Country/’ 

‘^But I don’t quite see — ” began Hugh. 

He could not understand what all this had to 
do with Oscar’s living on a lonely hilltop in the 
forest. 

''Linda and I often talked the whole matter 
over,” Oscar went on, "and wondered what could 
be done, but we never saw a way. Then one 
day, when I had been hunting, I came as far as 
this valley which Jake had just begun trying to 
hold; it was then I saw suddenly whence help 
could come. There are only rocky bits of ground 
to be tilled near Rudolm, but here is land, and 
prosperity for all even though it will not come in 
a single day. I thought it out as I lay by my 
campfire that night, and in the morning I could 
hardly get home quickly enough to tell them of my 
plan.” 

"And wouldn’t they listen?” 

Hugh had moved close up to him to make sure 
of missing no single word. He was beginning 
to see the reasons for some of the things he had 


ii6 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

noticed in Rudolm, the tiny houses, the narrow 
fields, the heavy sad faces. He thought of the 
road, ‘'Oscar’s road,” that went to the top of the 
first hill, and stopped. 

“It was hard to make them heed, for they had 
been deceived once, but in the end they began to 
listen. The first step needed was to build a road 
through the forest so that the new valley should 
not be buried beyond the reach of the world. 
We got together a little money, the men came 
with their horses, their axes and picks and, at 
the summer Festival, with laughing and singing 
and a few tears too, so great a plan did it seem to 
some, we began to push our way into the wilder- 
ness. But the labor was harder than they 
thought and the men began to be discouraged and 
to quarrel and to mutter among themselves, 
‘That mad Oscar Dansk, he and his father, they 
were both dreamers of dreams.’ So the work 
went slower and slower until we came at last to 
the top of the hill. 

“You see it was Jake who had commenced to 
make trouble. He began to think that this val- 


The Promised Land 117 

ley where he hunted and fished would be lost to 
him if settlers came. He threatened openly that 
any man who worked longer on the road would 
be shot in the dark some night, and he got the 
women whispering that the whole alfair was a 
mad scheme that could come to nothing. So 
they doubted and hesitated and finally lost heart. 
And that was the end of our road-building.’’ 

‘‘But not the end forever, surely,” Hugh said. 

“No, for I made up my mind that if I could 
not persuade them at that end I could show them 
at this. I staked out a claim for a farm of my 
own, and I mean to live here until it is mine and 
those people in Rudolm see that it can be done 
and that Jake’s threats must come to nothing in 
the end. It takes fourteen months to prove up on 
a claim, but my time is almost done.” 

“And you have lived in this lonely place so 
long as that,” Hugh exclaimed. “How did you 
ever hold to that one idea for all this time?” 

“I did not,” admitted Oscar, “for I went off 
on a wild goose chase, but I came back again. 
When I went down to Rudolm last April and 


Ii8 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

knew that war was declared, there was nothing 
I thought of but that I must be a soldier or a 
sailor as quickly as chance would let me. I 
rushed down to Duluth to enlist ; my scheme for 
helping Rudolm was forgotten as though it had 
never been.'’ 

Oscar's tale stopped suddenly short. Hugh, 
looking down, saw his big hand clench suddenly 
upon his knee until the knuckles were white and 
the cords stood out along his wrist. For a mo- 
ment the boy did not dare to speak. 

‘‘Wouldn't they take you, Oscar?" he said 
gently at last. 

“They wouldn't take me," was the heavy an- 
swer, as though even how the disappointment was 
too keen to dwell upon. “It was on account of 
what that fight with the pirates had done to my 
arm, the bone had been injured so that the elbow 
will only move halfway. I never believed it 
amounted to anything, but every man at the re- 
cruiting station thought otherwise." 

“What did you say to them?" 

“Say — I have no notion what I said. I 


The Promised Land 


1 19 

shouted and cursed at them, for such anger pos- 
sessed me as I had never known before. Finally 
I flung out of the building and down the street, 
not knowing or caring where I went. I wan- 
dered all night, I think, for when at last I came 
out on the docks where the Great Lakes’ 
freighters were loading, it was beginning to be 
morning. I saw iron and steel and flour and 
wheat all being dropped into those great holds, 
to be carried overseas, so some one told me, to 
help toward the winning of the war. I sat there 
long in a sort of daze, and watched the steamers 
loading, but at last, through my anger, through 
the sight that was before my eyes I began to see 
this valley again and to dream of what might 
come out of it to help us win the war.” 

‘Iron — mines ?” ventured Hugh inquiringly 
after Oscar had sat quiet a minute, seeing his 
vision again, perhaps. 

“No, there is iron in plenty near Rudolm and 
in the ranges to the eastward, enough for all the 
munition factories we have. No, no, what are 
mines alongside of a great valley lying fallow. 


120 


The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

ready to help feed a starving world? Can’t you 
see those wild grass meadows cut up into great 
square fields of green, can’t you see those slopes 
all yellow with grain and rippling like water un- 
der the autumn winds? It’s not iron — it’s not 
gold — it’s wheat, man, wheat!” 

Hugh leaned forward, thrilling to the fervor 
of Oscar’s tone. He looked at the wide valley 
brimming with sunshine and abundant fertility, 
and thought of what a gift it might ofifer to 
famine-stricken France as she cried to America 
for aid. He drew a long breath. 

‘'It is a wonderful idea, Oscar,” he said. “But 
can you do it?” 

“I will do it,” said Oscar with all his slow 
Swedish determination sounding in his voice. 
“I saw it all as I stood and watched a big, black 
freighter steaming away into the dawn toward — 
where I wanted to go. I saw that if you serve, 
you serve, and some other than yourself settles 
where you are to be the most useful. So I went 
over to the Land Office and explained what I 


The Promised Land 121 

wanted to do and asked to double the size of my 
claim/’ 

‘They should have given you the whole val- 
ley,” Hugh said. 

“They didn’t,” his friend replied drily. “They 
didn’t take any stock in me at all. I think they 
thought I was trying to dodge military service 
for they sent over to the recruiting office to see if 
the facts I gave agreed at both places. An officer 
came over himself to say, Tf there is anything for 
that shouting madman to spend his energies on, 
in the name of Heaven, give it to him.’ So they 
let me register for as much as I wanted and told 
me to go back and hold it if I could. They were 
pretty sure I couldn’t.” 

“But you will, oh, Oscar, I know you will,” 
Hugh said. “And now I see why you have called 
it the Promised Land.” 

Oscar laughed a little shamefacedly. 

“It is a foolish name perhaps and we will find 
another when the settlers come. But now I call 
it that just to — to keep my courage up. If you 


122 


The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

have not something big to think of while you are 
waiting, the loneliness might eat into your very 
soul.’’ 

'‘And after the settlers come the road will fol- 
low?” said Hugh. 

“I have thought many times of how it will be,” 
answered Oscar, leaning forward to point. "The 
road will come winding down that hillside, white 
and smooth and dusty with much travel. There 
by that group of pines will be Linda’s house, with 
a space for children to play in the meadow below. 
Nels Larson’s place will be there just north of it 
by that knoll, and Ole Peterson’s across the 
stream. And by the bend of the river there will 
be a little town with a school and white houses 
with gardens and a church with a square spire, 
just as it used to be in Sweden. I have pictured 
it a hundred times as I sit here by the door. I 
know every house and field and meadow, just how 
it will all be. Sometimes I think I can almost 
hear the church bells ring already or the children 
calling to each other as they go across the fields 
to school.” 


The Promised Land 


123 


‘‘It looks homelike, somehow, even without any 
houses in it,” observed Hugh after a long survey 
of the quiet landscape. “Oh, Oscar, how like 
home it looked the day that I was lost and came 
over that hill at last !” 

He hesitated a moment, for very little had been 
said of his adventure in the wood. He had not 
even let himself think of it often and, half defiant, 
half ashamed, had avoided the subject, but now 
let his spoken remorse come with a rush. 

“I am so sorry that I did not do just as you told 
me. You looked for me for hours, I know, and 
I have never owned that it was all my fault. And 
I lost your rifle, too; I feel so dreadfully about 
that. I thought that I could save time and that 
you were too careful.” 

He sat thinking for a second, then added in a 
sudden burst of illumination : 

“Perhaps that was why my father wouldn’t let 
me go to France, because he knew I hadn’t sense 
enough to obey orders. I understand now what 
he meant by my not having enough judgment. 
Oh, Oscar, I am so ashamed !” 


124 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

“It iss all right/’ The Swedish accent in 
Oscar’s voice sounded very distinctly as it was 
apt to do when he was moved. “It was my fault 
as much as yours ; I should have warned you that 
you would be tempted to do just such a thing. 
When I waited for you and you did not come — 
well, I am not so often frightened, but I was 
afraid then. It is no little thing to be lost in 
these woods. I wish — I wish — ” 

He did not finish his sentence, but Hugh knew 
that he was thinking of the Edmonds boys and of 
how the search for them was growing more hope- 
less every day. He, too, felt that despair was not 
far off, but he had a feeling that, if either of them 
spoke of it, the idea of failure would suddenly be- 
come a real thing instead of a dreaded possibility. 
He tried to turn the talk to another subject and 
spoke the first words that entered his mind. It 
was the most careless of questions, but it led to 
such unexpected consequences that he used to 
wonder, later, why the clock had not ceased tick- 
ing or the rising breeze stopped blowing to listen 
as he spoke. 


The Promised Land 


125 


‘‘Have you seen any wolves about here lately, 
or that white deer that the Indians say is in the 
forest?^’ 

‘Wolves never come so far south as this in 
summer,” answered Oscar, then added sharply, 
‘Why?” 

“Because when I was lost I stopped by a marsh 
and — I haven't really thought of it very clearly 
since — but there were footprints in the ground 
that were much too big to have been made by a 
fox, I am sure, so I thought they were a wolf's.” 

Oscar leaned toward him, his blue eyes sud- 
denly burning with excitement. 

‘What sort of footprints?” he questioned 
tersely. “How big? That makes all the differ- 
ence in the world.” 

“Why, I don't know,” stammered Hugh; “just 
footprints of some big animal. They weren't 
very plain.” 

In wild haste Oscar fumbled in his pockets, 
pulled out a pencil and, so great was his eager- 
ness, drew his rough outlines on the blank page 
of his Bible. 


126 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

‘If a fox had made them they would be this 
big,” he said; “and if a wolf, like this. Were 
they as big, bigger than that? As big as this?” 

Hugh looked over his shoulder and pointed un- 
hesitatingly to the third drawing. 

“They were as large as that, or even larger,” he 
stated. “Oh, what does it mean?” 

Oscar drew a long breath. 

“There is but one creature that could have 
made them,” said he; “that is the dog Nicholas. 
He is very large, and white, as large as a deer. 
Now we have something to go upon at last.” 

He glanced quickly toward the west and 
frowned as he noted that the sun was low. 

“It is too late to go now,” he said, “and would 
hardly be worth while, for I suppose the marks 
were days old when you saw them. We will 
have supper, and go to bed early for a start at 
sunrise to-morrow.” 

Rising, he went into the cabin and, as Hugh 
could plainly hear, began to whistle gayly as he 
stirred the fire and brought out the frying pan. 
He seemed much more cheerful already now that 


The Promised Land 


127 


there was, at last, a little hope. Hugh took up 
his pail and went to finish his long interrupted 
task of fetching water from the spring. 

He came running up the path a few minutes 
later, spilling the water in wild splashes, and 
burst in at the cottage door. 

''Oscar,’’ he cried, "did you say that you were 
sure Jake was still away?” 

'‘Yes,” answered Oscar, looking up from the 
fire; "he can’t be back yet.” 

"But he is,” insisted Hugh excitedly. "I 
thought so, and now I know. Just this minute 
I saw three men walk across the clearing and 
there is smoke coming from the chimney of the 
cabin on Jasper Peak. Just come to the door 
and see.” 


CHAPTER VII 


WHITHER AWAY? 

I T rained in the night, and blew so fiercely that 
the windows of the little house rattled and the 
door shook upon its hinges. When Hugh got up 
in the morning, all eagerness for the expedition, 
there was watery sunlight showing, but great 
gusts of wind were still thundering down the val- 
ley and the air was raw and chilly. The smiling 
autumn landscape of scarlet and gold was totally 
transformed; the flaming leaves had disappeared 
in one stormy night and the brown woods stood 
bare and bleak and cold. 

'T wish this storm had waited just one day 
longer,’' said Oscar as they were having break- 
fast before the welcome blaze of the big fire. 
‘There may even be snow now before many 
hours.” 

He did not say, ‘Tf only you had remembered 

128 


Whither Away? 129 

one day sooner what you saw in the wood!” 
Hugh felt that the thought must be in his mind, 
so large did it loom in his own. But Oscar’s 
fashion of never wasting words was contagious, 
so he, too, said nothing. 

As he opened the door to go out and feed 
Hulda, he heard, above the booming of the wind, 
a steady dull roar that was quite new to his ears. 

''That is the stream that runs this side of Jas- 
per Peak,” Oscar explained. "You could hardly 
believe how one night’s rain can carry it over its 
banks. Even less of a storm than this will some- 
times make it impassable. Fortunately, where I 
want to go to-day is on this side and I will not 
have to try to cross it. But I may not be back 
until long after dark.” 

It was not like Oscar to say "I” when there 
were two to talk about. Hugh noted this with a 
sinking of the heart. 

"Oscar,” he cried, turning back from the door, 
"am I not going, too?” 

Oscar slowly shook his head. 

"I’m so sorry,” he said with evident under- 


130 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

standing of Hugh’s disappointment, ''but you see 
if Jake is really back we can’t risk leaving the 
cabin alone. The claim is nearly established now 
and the closer we come to the end, the closer we 
come to trouble. There is bound to be one more 
row before the thing finally goes through.” 

"What sort of a row, Oscar?” 

Oscar looked down at his scarred hand and 
smiled reflectively. 

"A row like the others we have had,” he said 
quietly, "only this time a really good one. 
Good-by.” 

He took up his pack and went out without an- 
other word. The furious wind seemed to seize 
him and whirl him away the moment he stepped 
outside the door. Hugh had not answered his 
farewell, for he was disappointed and indignant 
at being left behind and he did not mind how 
plainly Oscar saw it. After all, it was he him- 
self who had seen the footprints by the marsh; 
he ought to be the person to go and look for them 
again. He went out to feed Hulda, slamming 


Whither Away? 13 1 

the door smartly behind him and never looking at 
Oscar, who was still in sight, trudging along the 
open ridge above the valley. Hugh understood 
now why Oscar had asked so many questions 
about the region where the footprints had been 
seen, about how long the boy had walked before 
he came in sight of the cabin, about the contour 
of the land and the direction in which the shad- 
ows fell. 

Hugh, as he moved sulkily toward the shed, 
began composing bitter speeches to be launched at 
Oscar when he should return. He stopped for 
a moment and looked across at Jasper Peak and 
the shack high up on its rocky shoulder. Yes, 
there was the plume of smoke again, torn and 
whirled about by the wind, but still sending up its 
ominous signal. He turned to open the shed 
door. He would tell Oscar plainly that — that — 
But, after all, why should Oscar have gone at all? 
It was a forlorn hope at the best for which he 
was risking everything, leaving in Hugh’s safe- 
keeping property that was infinitely valuable in 


132 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

the light of the purpose it was to serve. A sud- 
den change of feeling overcame Hugh, filling him 
with shame for his blind ill-temper. 

He ran back to the top of the hill to see Oscar 
just about to disappear into the forest. It was 
too far for a shout to carry, but, yes, Oscar looked 
back just as he plunged into the wood. Hugh 
raised his arm high in a gesture of farewell and 
Oscar waved his woolen cap in generous-hearted 
understanding. Thus good feeling was reestab- 
lished between them before they parted, parted 
for a longer time than either of them could have 
thought. 

Hugh went back to attend to Hulda’s wants 
for the day. She was a patient cow, but even 
she looked around at him in reproachful sur- 
prise over the awkwardness of his good offices. 

‘'And I suppose I will have to try to milk her 
to-night,” he reflected with some misgiving. He 
was not sure that her patience and forbearance 
were great enough for him to attempt such a feat. 

As he returned to the cabin he was wondering 
how he was to spend the lonely day. There were. 


Whither Away? 133 

he found, however, any number of things to be 
done, pans to be cleaned, water to be carried, some 
last weeds and dried stalks to be cleared from 
Oscar’s vegetable garden and in the small field 
that he had cultivated. Oscar had managed to 
raise quite a store of wheat, had ground it by 
hand in the rude little mill that he had constructed 
himself and had put it aside for use during the 
winter. He had potatoes, too, and beans, turnips 
and other vegetables that could be dried or stored, 
so that the supplies that must be carried so la- 
boriously from Rudolm need be the fewest pos- 
sible. 

After he had finished his work in the cabin 
and had cooked his dinner, trying to imitate 
Oscar’s skill in tossing flapjacks and not succeed- 
ing very well, Hugh took an ax and went out 
to the edge of the forest to cut wood. Gathering 
the winter’s fuel was an endless task, one upon 
which he and Oscar spent all of their extra time. 
He looked across at Jasper Peak again as he 
came out, but a curtain of rain was falling be- 
tween him and the mountain and the cabin oppo- 


134 Pirate of Jasper Peak 

site was invisible. It was growing colder and 
colder, the wind coming in icy gusts and the roar 
of the flooded stream becoming louder as dark- 
ness fell. Hugh worked actively all afternoon, 
as much for the sake of keeping warm and occu- 
pied, as for what he might accomplish. He had 
a generous store of wood to reward him for his 
heavy toil when at last it grew so late that he 
could see to wield the ax no longer. He walked 
heavily back to the cabin, wet and weary and 
wishing that Oscar would come home. In the 
shelter of the trees he had not noticed the wind 
and was amazed at its strength when he crossed 
the open ridge and ran for the cabin door. 

On looking at the clock he realized that he had 
spent more time in the forest than he had in- 
tended and that he must make haste about his eve- 
ning tasks. The fire was nearly out and did not 
wish to burn, for the wood was wet and the wind, 
whistling down the chimney, filled the room with 
sparks and smoke. He grew impatient and irri- 
tated at last, kicked the logs into place and re- 
ceived in return such a puflF of ashes in his face 


Whither Away?. 135 

that he was nearly choked. As he went to the 
door for a breath of fresh air, he remembered, 
with sudden dismay, that he must milk Hulda. 

For a long time after, Hugh preferred not to 
remember that interview between himself and 
the indignant cow. Even when he did think of 
it, he realized that Hulda showed the greatest 
forbearance and that the kick she gave him was 
probably an involuntary one, administered when 
cow nature could endure no more. She looked 
around at him a moment later with apology in 
her mild brown eyes, encouraging him to forget 
his smarting knee, to sit down upon the stool and 
attempt the task again. At last he straightened 
his aching back and stood gazing with pride at 
the bucket half full of foaming milk. 

‘'You are a good cow, Hulda,’" he confided to 
her; “there are not many who would stand for 
what you have."’ 

Very carefully he carried his prize back to the 
house, slipping and stumbling on the wet path, 
but taking the greatest care that not a drop should 
be spilled. He felt prouder of having milked 


136 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

Hulda without assistance than of anything he 
had ever before achieved; he did wish that Oscar 
would come home to see. He stood a minute by 
the cabin door, trying with vain eyes to peer 
through the darkness. Nothing was visible, 
hardly even the hand he held before his face, 
nothing would pierce that heavy blackness but the 
rushing of the flooded stream and the calling of 
the wind. With a great sigh he turned at last, 
fumbled for the latch of the door and stepped 
inside. 

The fire had burned up during his absence, 
making the room look warm and cozy, a welcome 
sight after the storm and rain without. He lit 
the lamp upon the table, then looked up uneasily 
at the clock on the wall. Its hands pointed to 
nine. He carried the lamp to the window, drew 
back the curtains and set it on the sill. 

*T wish Oscar would come,” he said aloud. 

So busy had he been that he had not had his 
supper yet. His unaccustomed hands and his 
great hunger both served to make the process a 
lengthy one, so that when he had finished and set 


Whither Away?. 137 

things in order again, it was nearly eleven. To 
tell the truth, he had kept himself occupied as 
long as he could in an effort to ignore the fact 
that the storm, bad as it had been all day, was 
growing worse. Rain thundered on the roof of 
the cabin with a noise that was almost deafening, 
paused a moment, then came pouring down again. 
The windows shook and the lamp flared and flick- 
ered in the sudden gusts that seemed to be trying 
to snatch the little dwelling from its foundations. 
Once during a momentary pause in the tumult he 
heard the sharp crack and then the slow crash- 
ing of a tree blown down in the forest. How 
could a storm be so terrible and still grow ever 
worse? Oh, why did not Oscar come home? 

He built up the dying fire and established him- 
self in the rough armchair to wait. He blinked 
up at the clock; it was midnight now. In spite 
of his discomfort, in spite of all his anxiety and 
his determination to keep awake, he fell into a 
doze. 

A sound aroused him, he had no idea just how 
much later. It was a strange noise at the door, 


138 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

one that at first made him think that here was 
Oscar come home at last. He jumped up and ran 
eagerly to admit him, but stopped with his hand 
almost upon the latch. It was not Oscar, it was 
no human being that was making that panting 
sound outside, that pushing and shouldering of 
some huge body against the door. His heart 
seemed to stand still as he waited for a second, 
watching the rude boards shake and tremble 
under the impact of that strange pressure. 
Something sniffed and snuffled along the crack at 
the threshold, something padded back and forth 
out there in the dark, then the soft fumbling and 
shouldering began again. 

'If I push the table across the door — ” thought 
Hugh, but the idea came a second too late. 

The latch suddenly gave way, the door flew 
open, letting in a blast of wind and rain and 
blowing out the lamp, so that the cabin was left 
in inky darkness. A vast white form sprang into 
the room, knocking Hugh into a corner, striking 
against a chair and upsetting it with a crash. 
Then there was utter silence, broken only by a 


Whither Away? 139 

quick panting over by the inner doorway where 
the invading creature must be standing. 

With a great effort Hugh managed to close the 
door against the fury of the wind. Still there 
was quiet, no movement from that corner whence 
the quick breathing came. Very slowly he took 
up the lamp, managed to steady his shaking hand 
and fumble for a match. He set the lamp on the 
table, lit the wick and turned the light full upon 
his strange visitor. Even when he saw the crea- 
ture clearly he could not, for a moment, grasp 
what it really was. It was a dog, but such an 
enormous dog as Hugh had never seen before. 
Its shaggy coat was white, and so wet with the 
rain that water dripped from it and ran pattering 
to the floor. Motionless, it stood there, still pant- 
ing from the effort of forcing its way in, and 
gazing steadily at Hugh with its great melancholy 
black eyes. He had never seen such an animal 
before, still there was something familiar — ^yes, 
he could have no doubt. It was the dog of the 
picture, Dick Edmonds’ dog, it was Nicholas ! 

The two stood long, staring at each other with- 


140 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

out moving, then the dog advanced very slowly 
and began sniffing delicately at the edge of 
Hugh’s coat. For all his size, he seemed to be 
shy and nervous, jumping back when the boy 
sought to lay a hand on his long head, advancing 
again when he was not looking to sniff at his 
clothes again and determine whether this was 
friend or foe. All his dignity disappeared, how- 
ever, when Hugh brought some food and set it 
upon the hearth before him. He fell upon it with 
wolfish ferocity, as though he had not eaten a full 
meal in weeks. He tore at the meat, crunched 
the bones and looked gratefully up at Hugh from 
time to time, wagging his long brush of a tail that 
swept the floor. But he did not eat all the food, 
ravenous as he seemed to be. When the first 
edge of his starvation was dulled, when the 
warmth of the fire had dried and warmed him 
so that he ceased to shiver, he stopped eating, 
went to the door and whined to be gone. 

‘^What’s the matter, old fellow, aren’t you 
happy here?” Hugh asked, whereat the dog 


Whither Away? 141 

came to him, nuzzled his hand with his long wet 
nose, then ran to the door again. 

His insistence was so great that at last Hugh 
felt forced to lift the latch, open the door and let 
him go. He bounded over the sill and disap- 
peared instantly into the dark. Not for long, 
however, for Hugh had not had time to close the 
door before he was back again, shoving his nose 
beseechingly into the boy’s hand, jumping about 
him and whining again and again. There was 
no doubting what it was he wished. 

*Tt’s a nice night for you to be asking me to go 
out with you,” remonstrated Hugh, '‘but — well, 
you are Dick Edmonds’ dog and we have been 
looking for you and him for a long time.” 

He stepped back into the cabin with Nicholas at 
his heels and took up his coat and cap. At the 
sight of this, the dog’s joy knew no bounds; he 
leaped about so that the furniture of the little 
cabin rocked and swayed under the force of his 
gigantic delight. Hugh put on his warmest 
clothes, got out a pack and put into it blankets. 


142 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

food, matches, anything he could think of that 
might be needed. He had no idea how far Nich- 
olas would lead him, how long he would be gone 
or what he should find. At the last minute he 
took Oscar ^s revolver down from the wall ; there 
had been two, but one his friend had evidently 
taken with him. He quenched the fire, put out 
the light and was finally ready. With Nicholas 
running ahead, barking in loud delight now that 
his desire was understood at last, they set out 
into the storm. 

The rain was still driving in sheets across the 
hill and the wind sweeping furiously along the 
open spaces. The darkness was so dense that at 
first Hugh could do nothing but feel his way 
down the trail which Nicholas so unhesitatingly 
followed. When his eyes became a little more 
used to the dark, however, and the trees began 
to shelter him from the stinging rain, he could 
make out the windings of the steep path, could 
distinguish the dog, white and ghostly, traveling 
steadily ahead of him, and finally could see the 
foaming white flood of the stream that poured 


Whither Away? 143 

downward to the lake between him and Jasper 
Peak. Nicholas advanced to the very edge of 
the creek, stopped and looked back. 

‘‘You don’t mean that we are to cross that?” 
exclaimed Hugh in dismay, gazing down at the 
tossing water. 

Such, however, was plainly Nicholas’ intention, 
for without further hesitation he plunged in and 
began to swim across. The wild current caught 
him and whirled him down the stream, as Hugh 
could just make out. The black mass of a float- 
ing log shot by and barely missed him, but none 
the less he struggled on and finally, a dim white 
form in the dark, scrambled out upon the oppo- 
site bank. 

What a dog could just barely accomplish was 
certainly impossible for a boy with a heavy pack. 
Hugh remembered that half a mile up the stream 
a huge tree had fallen across from bank to bank, 
making a bridge by which he might get over if 
the rush of the flood had not carried it away. 
Nicholas, whining with anxiety, followed along 
on the other shore, as Hugh made his way with 


144 Pirate of Jasper Peak 

difficulty to where the tree should be. Yes, it 
was still there, high out of water at each end but 
with the furious current pouring across it in the 
middle. It looked like none too safe a crossing, 
but it was the only one. He attempted, at first, 
to walk upright, but soon found that impossible, 
so stooped, and was at length reduced to crawling 
painfully along on hands and knees. The cold 
water swirled about him as he approached the 
center of the stream, the current seemed trying, 
with direct intent, to tear loose his hold and wash 
him away. The tree-trunk quivered and trem- 
bled under the mighty force that was hurled 
against it, but it held under his weight as slowly 
he crawled along, felt the current lessen, came 
into quieter water and was at last safe on the 
other side, with Nicholas standing up to lick his 
face. 

‘‘Now, then, where next?” questioned Hugh 
as the dog immediately set off up the mountain. 
The rain and wind were less violent on this side 
of the ravine, so that their progress was quicker 
as they climbed upward. It was fortunate that it 


Whither Away? 14^ 

was so dark, Hugh thought, for it seemed as 
though they were about to pass uncomfortably 
close to the Pirate's cabin. He plodded on, stum- 
bling over roots, scrambling through bushes, find- 
ing the way very rough indeed. It was not until 
they came to the edge of a clearing and saw be- 
fore him a little house with one lighted window 
and with Nicholas standing waiting on the door- 
step that he realized what was to be the goal of 
this strange night journey. 

Even then he thought of turning back. The 
perils of the rain-swept forest and of the swollen 
floods were as nothing to the dangers lurking in 
that evil dwelling that blinked at him with one 
staring red eye. Had not Nicholas run quickly 
through the dark to lick his hand, had he not 
thought once more of the lost Edmonds brothers 
and how he had pledged himself to help them, it 
is possible that he might not have gone on. Yet 
at last he stepped out of the woods, and, very 
firm and straight, walked across the clearing to 
the house. 

He stopped for a moment upon the step and 


146 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

listened. There was not a sound from within. 
Was the place empty, or had some one heard him 
coming and was waiting, in stealthy quiet, until 
he should enter? What was that, a sigh per- 
haps, more like a stifled moan? Without fur- 
ther hesitation he pushed open the door and 
stepped inside. 


CHAPTER VIII 


A night's lodging 

I T had been the intense darkness of the night 
outside that had made the cabin window look 
bright, for the room into which Hugh came was 
lit only by a dying fire. Close to the hearth a 
big chair had been drawn and in this some one 
was sitting, some one who whispered and mut- 
tered to himself and stirred uneasily but did not 
look round. Nicholas ran to him and began lick- 
ing the thin hand that hung limply over the arm 
of the chair. A lantern stood on the table, but 
it had evidently burned out. A canvas pack, 
half-emptied, with its blankets trailing out upon 
the floor, lay on a bench. It was quite evident 
that, besides the man in the chair, there was no 
one in the cabin. 

Hugh went over to him, but still he did not look 
147 


148 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

up. The boy touched the hand that Nicholas 
was licking and found it burning with fever. 
The man was very thin; he had on the rough 
clothes that every one wears in the woods, but he 
was fair-skinned and as unlike Half-Breed Jake 
and his companions as it was possible to be. It 
needed no very long reflection to make it clear to 
Hugh that this was John Edmonds. 

Although it was quite true that Hugh did not 
know very much of the woodcraft and that, at 
milking Hulda, he had come very near to being a 
flat failure, there were still some crises to which 
he was equal, for he was not a country doctor’s 
son for nothing. He had helped his father more 
than once in emergencies very like this one, so 
that he was not long at a loss what to do. John 
Edmonds must certainly be got to bed, but one 
look at the bunks against the walls and the filthy 
rags that lay piled upon them, assured Hugh that 
the floor was infinitely preferable. He unpacked 
his own blankets, gathered up those that lay on 
the bench and made a bed upon the rough board 
flooring. It required almost unbelievable effort 


149 


A Nighf s Lodging 

to arouse John Edmonds and move him, helplessly 
weak as he was, to the improvised couch. Hugh 
did not stop to rekindle the lantern, .but flung 
more wood upon the fire and by its light went 
about the task of getting his patient partly un- 
dressed and of making him more comfortable. 

During these ministrations, poor Nicholas, not 
realizing that his share of usefulness was over, 
contrived to make himself continually in the way. 
He seemed at least ten sizes too big for the tiny 
cabin and to have the idea that the best thing he 
could do was to keep as near to Edmonds as pos- 
sible. Hugh pushed him out of the way a score 
of times, stumbled over him in the half dark and 
felt, every time he stood still for a moment, that 
cold nose pushed into his hand as though the big 
dog were begging him to do his best. At last the 
worried creature subsided, and lay down at the 
sufferer's feet, with his chin on his paws and his 
dark eyes still following Hugh wherever he went. 
The bqy tried everything he knew and, finally, 
kneeling beside his patient on the floor, was re- 
warded by seeing the uneasy stupor pass into 


150 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

something like natural slumber. He waited a 
long time to assure himself that Edmonds’ breath- 
ing was easier and quieter and that he really slept. 
Then he got up stiffly, mended the fire once more 
and began to explore the resources of the little 
cabin. 

In a store-shed behind the one room he found 
an open window, through which Nicholas had 
evidently made his way when he had set out on 
his own expedition. He also discovered a can 
of oil, with which he filled the lantern so that it 
could be lit again. The yellow light, falling upon 
the table, showed him something that he had not 
seen before, a note scrawled hastily in pencil on 
brown paper. 

''John,” it ran, "I have gone for help, but not 
to Oscar Dansk, because I promised you I would 
not. I have gone to the Indian village at Two 
Rivers and will try to send some one into Rudolm 
for a doctor. I will be back before a great many 
hours. Dick.” 

With the letter still in his hand, Hugh sat down 
beside the fire to try to think the matter out. It 


A Night's Lodging 151 

was evident that the two Edmonds had taken 
shelter from the storm in the Pirate’s cabin and 
that John had become so ill that his younger 
brother, in alarm, had gone for aid. Their 
plight must have been desperate indeed for Dick 
to leave his brother alone in such a place. But 
why should he have gone so far when just across 
the ravine help was to be had? Why did he 
speak of a promise? It was very hard to under- 
stand ! 

Nicholas arose from where he had been lying 
and came to stand beside him, arching his curly 
neck as Hugh stroked it, and trying to burrow his 
head under the boy’s arm. 

''You could tell me all about it if you could 
talk,” said Hugh in a whisper. "Oh, dear, it is 
such a puzzle, I wish you could.” 

He began to remember now that Jethro had 
dropped some hint of a misunderstanding be- 
tween John Edmonds and Oscar Dansk. He had 
hardly noticed it when it had been mentioned, but 
now he commenced to recall the fact more clearly. 

"In the end even John Edmonds lost faith in 


152 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

Oscar’s plan about the road, and that nearly 
broke his heart,” Jethro had said. 

Plainly, the quarrel had been a serious one, if 
Edmonds was so determined not to receive aid 
from Oscar’s hands. And how had Oscar taken 
it? Even at that moment he was out there in 
the storm, risking his life, risking the plan for 
which he cared even more than life — ^he was do- 
ing this for the friend with whom he had quar- 
reled. 

'‘Oh, Nicholas,” exclaimed Hugh as he 
squeezed the big dog’s ears, "oh, Nicholas, that 
Oscar Dansk is a real man !” 

One thing still so puzzled him that his baffled 
thoughts came back to it again and again. Was 
it the two Edmonds who had occupied the Pi- 
rate’s shack yesterday, that quiet Sunday when 
he and Oscar had sat talking so long before the 
cottage door? Was it the smoke from their fire 
that he had seen rising from the chimney? 

After long reflection, during which his 
thoughts began to wander sleepily here and there 
and had to be brought back again with a jerk, 


A Night's Lodging 153 

he began to be certain that it could not have been 
the two Edmonds brothers. He himself had 
seen three men walk across the clearing and from 
the letter he could make sure that Dick and his 
brother had been alone. Besides, the distance 
was not so great that he could not have made out 
so big a creature as Nicholas, had the dog been 
with them. Evidently the pirates had come and 
gone before the storm — but why? Evidently the 
Edmonds, after the wind and rain had come on 
in such fierceness, had taken refuge there — but 
how did they dare? And, evidently, he was 
growing very sleepy now, but the force of this 
new thought served to rouse him completely 
again, evidently the pirates would be returning — 
and when ? 

The night wore to a slow end, and day broke 
at last. With the first gray light there came a 
change in his patient, the fever was succeeded by 
chills and shivering and for an hour Hugh was 
doing his utmost with hot blankets and warming 
drinks. Gradually the trembling stopped and 
John Edmonds, opening his eyes, gave Hugh a 


154 Pirate of Jasper Peak 

look of bewildered amazement and stared about 
him as though the cabin and the boy were both 
totally unfamiliar. It was not until his eyes fell 
upon Nicholas that he seemed satisfied and 
dropped off to sleep again. It was broad daylight 
now and time for Hugh to realize that he was 
exceedingly hungry. He fell to examining his 
own stores, Edmonds’ and Half-Breed Jake’s, to 
see what the combined larder afforded. There 
was not much in his pack, for he had not thought 
he would be very long away from the cottage; 
there was nothing in Edmonds’, but quite a sup- 
ply of flour and bacon in Jake’s store room. 

don’t care to use anything that belongs to 
that gang unless I have to,” he thought. ‘Tt was 
probably all stolen in the first place.” 

As he was putting one of the bags back into 
place, he knocked down a gun that had been 
standing in the corner and that now fell at his 
feet with a loud clatter. He picked it up and 
recognized with delight that it was Oscar’s rifle, 
the same one that he himself had dropped in the 
woods the day that he was lost. This would be a 


A Nighfs Lodging 155 

prize indeed to take back with him when the time 
should come to go. But how had the pirates 
come by it ? Had somebody been following that 
day in the forest, was the same somebody even 
now following Oscar wherever he had gone ? 

He made his breakfast and fed Nicholas from 
his own supplies. Fortunately he knew enough 
not to try to give food to John Edmonds, who 
was sleeping uneasily again, as though the fever 
was once more beginning to rise. Hugh, sitting 
beside him, began to do some very intense calcu- 
lating as to who would be the most likely to come 
back first, Dick Edmonds or Half-Breed Jake. 
It was impossible to tell, he could only wait. He 
sat, staring down at his patient for a long time. 
The only proper thing to do was to try to get 
him across the ravine to Oscar’s cottage, but 
could a boy of sixteen possibly hope to convey a 
heavy, helpless man that far ? To all of his ques- 
tionings this was the only one to which there was 
a definite answer. And the answer was no. 

The morning passed, one slow hour after an- 
other. It was still raining heavily, with water 


156 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

pouring from the edge of the cabin roof and 
streaming down the windows, and with the 
flooded creek still thundering in the ravine below. 
Every minute that passed brought nearer the 
possible return of Half-Breed Jake, since, so 
Hugh began to think, he must certainly be the 
one to come first. More than once he thought 
he heard steps outside and felt of his revolver to 
be ready for whatever might come, but each time 
it proved to be a false alarm. Finally he sat 
down at the table, facing the door, and laid his 
revolver before him, to wait as best he could. 
He had risen very early the morning that Oscar 
had gone away alone — was it a day or a week 
ago? At least he knew that he had slept very 
little since and that he must, at all costs, keep 
awake now. Yet slowly his head began to nod, 
to droop further toward the table ; finally it rested 
on his arms and he was asleep. 

It was the deepest of slumbers into which he 
had fallen, yet he came out of it with a sudden- 
ness that left him dazed. Nicholas was leaping 
at the door, barking loudly to herald some one's 


157 


A Nighfs Lodging 

coming, sniffing along the threshold, then barking 
and leaping again. Hugh jumped up, so stiff 
that he could not move quickly. He took up his 
revolver and tried to reach the door, but was only 
half way across the room when it swung open, 
and Dick Edmonds came in. 

He was drenched and dripping, and he, too, 
held a revolver in his hand. The two boys stared 
at each other for a long moment, then burst into 
roars of laughter. The long strain, the sudden 
desperate tension, the relief of each one at seeing 
a friend when he expected to confront an enemy, 
was quite too much for both. Even while they 
laid down their threatening weapons and shook 
hands they were still laughing. It was Dick who 
sobered first and went over to stoop down by his 
brother. 

''He must have been getting steadily worse 
from the time I got him here,’’ he said. "Poor 
old Johnny, if he had been as badly off as this I 
would never have left him. But this was as far 
as I could get him alone and I was so desperate 
that I went off for help. I had been hoping 


158 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

against hope that Jake and his gang were away 
for some time, but when I saw by the muddy 
footprints on the doorstep that some one had gone 
in since I went away, I can tell you I was anx- 
ious/' 

"‘Did you bring some one back with you?" 
asked Hugh. 

never got to Two Rivers at all," replied Dick. 
'The first stream I came to was so far over its 
banks that I walked for hours trying to find a 
place to cross and couldn’t. At last I realized 
that, even if I got help, it would risk leaving John 
alone too long, so I turned back. A lot of good 
I did by going !" 

"The thing now," said Hugh, "is to get your 
brother away as quickly as we can. The pirates 
will be coming back any minute." 

"I doubt if even the pair of us could ever get 
him to Two Rivers," Dick returned doubtfully. 

"We’ll take him across to Oscar Dansk’s house, 
there beyond the ravine," Hugh said. 

Dick hesitated, stammered and flushed. 

"I promised — " he began. 


A Nighfs Lodging 159 

‘Whatever you promised/' Hugh interrupted 
him, “you will not be asking for help from Oscar 
Dansk. He is not there.” 

“Where is he?” 

“Out in the woods — looking for you.” 

Dick shook his head slowly. 

“That beats me,” he said. “I always thought 
poor Johnny was wrong about Oscar, I never 
really understood about that quarrel myself. 
And lately John was too sick to know quite what 
he did think, and he made me promise over and 
over, when he knew that we might be somewhere 
near where Oscar lived, that I would not go to 
him for help. They are both so obstinately 
proud. But I can see for myself that the only 
thing now is to do as you say. I should like to 
know how you ever got here, Hugh, and about a 
hundred other things, but we won't spend time 
on explanations just yet. I suppose we can make 
a stretcher of blankets and carry him between us 
somehow.” 

Their preparations were quickly made. John 
Edmonds, still unconscious, was lifted to the rude 


i6o The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

litter they had constructed, and was carried out 
of the cabin. They had covered him well against 
the wind and rain, but the journey would be a 
perilous one for him, none the less. Slowly, and 
with frequent pauses, they got him across the 
clearing and down the hill to the stream, then 
along its bank to where the fallen tree still held 
its place. With the decreasing of the furious 
rain the flood had dropped a little, so that to-day 
the whole of the rude bridge was out of water. 
How they got across, Hugh did not ever quite 
know. The tree swayed and shook more than it 
had done before, for the water had undermined 
the banks and made the frail support even more 
uncertain. They worked their way across, hold- 
ing their burden high between them, and breathed 
a monstrous sigh of relief when at last they were 
on firm ground again. Nicholas would not trust 
their way of crossing, but swam over, with much 
difficulty, and was waiting for them on the other 
shore. 

They were a tired and breathless pair when 
they had finally carried Edmonds up the steep 


A Nighfs Lodging i6i 

trail and into Oscar’s cottage. Most eagerly, as 
they approached the house, did Hugh look for 
some sign of his friend’s return. But the door 
and the windows were closed, the chimney smoke- 
less, there was no one there. Only Hulda 
greeted them with an impatient call and loud 
stampings on the floor of her shed, to signify her 
indignation at having been forgotten so long. 
Hugh did not stop for any vain wonderings. 

‘^Can you get your brother to bed alone,” he 
asked Dick, ^'while I go back?” 

‘^Go back !” exclaimed Dick. ‘What for ?” 

“For the things we had to leave behind,” Hugh 
answered, “and for Oscar’s rifle. I dropped it in 
the woods and Jake had picked it up. I would 
risk anything to get it back for him.” 

“You should not go,” Dick insisted; “the pi- 
rates may come back any second now.” 

But the door had already closed behind Hugh 
and he was speeding down the trail with Nicholas 
at his heels. They crossed the stream, even the 
dog being willing to use the bridge this time 
after his last experience with the wild current. 


1 62 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

Hugh reached the cabin and secured the rifle and 
the two packs that still lay upon the table. 

‘What luck I have had/’ he thought exultantly. 
“Now I suppose I ought to put out the fire; it 
would not be fair to risk burning up their cabin, 
no matter who they are.” 

He had stepped back to the hearth when a low 
growl from Nicholas startled him to sudden at- 
tention. The big dog was standing with ears 
and head up and the hair on his back beginning 
to bristle. Tiptoeing to the window, Hugh 
peered cautiously out. There, on the side of the 
clearing away from the stream, he saw three men 
coming out of the edge of the wood. Even at 
that distance he could recognize the tall figure 
and swarthy face of Half-Breed Jake as he came 
up the hill a little ahead of the other two. The 
door was on the opposite side of the cabin, so that 
Hugh could slip out undiscovered, but it was a 
long, long open slope that lay between him and 
the sheltering woods. 

Down the hill he plunged, cutting off corners of 
the trail, leaping over the rocks and scrambling 


A Night's Lodging 163 

through the low-growing bushes. Nicholas 
seemed to cover the distance in two bounds with 
a speed that Hugh greatly envied. He was bur- 
dened with the two heavy packs and the rifle 
slung across his shoulders, but, by some instinc- 
tive obstinacy, he would not drop them for the 
pirates to capture. 

For a minute he thought he could escape un- 
seen, but his progress was slower than he thought 
and he had delayed in the cabin an instant too 
long. A shout behind him told that he was dis- 
covered. He looked desperately upward as a 
clattering of feet sounded on the stony trail and 
saw three men cross the top of the hill and come 
running down the path. 


CHAPTER IX 


PERIL AT THE BRIDGE 


NY person of real judgment, so Hugh real- 



ized even at the time, would have thrown 
away the pack and rifle and run to safety unim- 
peded. He did think of it, but somehow he could 
not. So he stumbled on, the men behind him 
gaining, the river and the fallen tree seeming a 
long distance away. He reached the sheltering 
underbrush, turned sharply upstream and was 
hidden for a moment from his pursuers as they 
came dashing down the hill. He had just leaped 
upon the tree-trunk when they came out upon the 


bank. 


‘‘Look out, Hugh,” came a shout from the 
other shore, where stood Dick, who had shame- 
lessly deserted his brother. “Look out! They 
are going to shoot.” 


164 


Peril at the Bridge 165 

Hugh did not stop to look, but ducked quickly 
and heard a bullet whistle over his head. The 
next second, ''ping,” another buried itself in the 
pack that hung from his shoulder. The impact 
almost destroyed his balance; he staggered and 
dropped to his knees and crawled the last few 
yards to safety. 

"Are you hurt?” cried Dick. "Are you safe? 
Lie down behind that log until they have stopped 
shooting.” 

In absolute defiance of his own advice he, as 
well as Nicholas, was standing among the trees, 
the one shouting, the other barking in wild excite- 
ment. But Hugh would not come, for his very 
danger on the now tottering bridge had given him 
an idea for the furthering of their own safety. 
He was standing knee deep in the running water 
with his shoulder against the tree-trunk, pushing 
against it with all his might. 

"Go back; stay with your brother,” he called to 
Dick. "What would he do if you were to be 
shot?” 

A bullet carried away his woolen cap and an- 


1 66 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

other cut the bark beside his hand, but he did not 
give up. He pushed until the big tree swayed, 
moved a little, then suddenly rolled all the way 
over. Just as the first Indian’s foot was upon it, 
the great log fell splashing into the water, was 
whirled over and over by the current and rushed 
away down stream. Dripping and delighted, 
Hugh ran up the trail to join Dick, the angry 
bullets still whistling behind him. He looked 
back to see one of the Indians wade into the 
water, stand waist deep, reeling under the force 
of the flood, then struggle back to the shore. All 
three of the pirates strode away through the 
bushes, talking earnestly together. 

For some time after the boys returned to the 
cabin they were busied caring for John Edmonds. 
While they were working, they exchanged 
their various experiences, so that Dick learned 
how Hugh came to be in the cabin on Jasper 
Peak, and Hugh, of the Edmonds’ adventures in 
the forest. 

This illness of John’s, it seemed, had been 
coming on gradually. Dick had noticed that 


Peril at the Bridge 167 

he was restless, erratic and worried over his 
work, at which he often had to toil late into the 
night. The hunting trip, Dick had thought, 
would help to put him on his feet again, and he 
had, indeed, seemed better the first day, but after 
that grew rapidly worse. 

'Tt was the last thing we could do together,” 
Dick explained, “for I was going to enlist when 
I got back; I had only been waiting until they 
could find some one to fill my place at the mine. 
We started off in great spirits; the Indian, Ka- 
niska, was our guide, a man we had had before, 
who always seemed reliable enough. He was a 
friend of John’s, in a way, and that queer squaw 
of his. Laughing Mary, had always professed to 
be devoted to us, especially to my brother. I 
can’t imagine how Kaniska could have done such 
a thing to us.” 

“And what did he do?” inquired Hugh eagerly. 

“He took us in a direction we had never been 
before,” said Dick, “through a perfect network 
of streams and little lakes and swamps, and made 
us push on as fast as we could, saying that we 


1 68 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

were getting to a place where there was famous 
shooting. We did not camp until very late that 
first night and I was so tired that I slept like the 
dead. When I woke up in the morning, he was 
gone.’’ 

‘'He left you alone?” exclaimed Hugh in 
horror. 

“Not only that, but he took all our stores with 
him, and our axes and our compass. To leave 
men in the woods, stripped of everything they 
need, is very little short of murder. I had been 
sleeping with my rifle beside me, so he didn’t dare 
take that. It was the only thing that saved us.” 

“And you have lived only on what you could 
shoot?” questioned Hugh. "Why, you must be 
half famished!” 

“I am,” assented Dick, cheerfully, “rather 
more than half, to tell the truth, but we must 
attend to Johnny first.” 

When at last there was time to stir up the fire 
and prepare a meal, Hugh realized on seeing 
Dick eat how near he had been to real starva- 
tion. 


Peril at the Bridge 169 

‘‘Berries and things are pretty scarce so late in 
the year as this/’ Dick continued his tale as they 
sat at the table. “I managed to catch a few fish 
now and then, and I shot any kind of bird that I 
could hit. We ate some queer things, but you 
get so that you don’t care much. Nicholas could 
catch rabbits and he always brought them to me, 
although, poor fellow, he could have eaten a hun- 
dred of them himself.” 

He related how, after a few hours of bewil- 
dered searching for the vanished Indian, he had 
decided that the stream upon which they were 
encamped, being larger than the others and flow- 
ing north, must be the outlet of Red Lake and 
was therefore the best guide to follow. If he 
could find the lake, he could find Rudolm, he 
thought, but what a long and hopeless way it 
seemed ! Now and then, in trying to cut off some 
of the windings of the stream, they had strayed 
away from it altogether and had only found it 
again after the loss of much time and effort. 

“And all the time Johnny kept getting sicker 
and sicker,” he said, “so that I got more fright- 


1 70 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

ened about him than about anything else. At 
night he would be out of his head, sometimes, 
and in the daytime he would just trudge along at 
my heels and never say a word. Only once, when 
I said that if we ever found the lake we might 
come out somewhere near Oscar Dansk's house, 
he got furiously angry and made me promise that 
I would never ask him for help. I don't know 
yet what idea he had in his poor confused head, 
but I had to promise, to quiet him." 

He told further of their growing weakness, of 
the shorter and shorter distances they could travel 
in a day, of a final afternoon when, having gone 
to shoot a partridge, he had come back and found 
his brother had disappeared. 

‘Terhaps I hadn't realized until that minute 
how desperately ill he was. He had wandered 
off; I could see the storm coming and I looked 
and looked and called and called, but I couldn't 
find him. I felt pretty hopeless, I can tell you." 

It was Nicholas who had discovered John Ed- 
monds at last, lying insensible under a big tree 


Peril at the Bridge 171 

near the foot of Jasper Peak. They had sat by 
him a long time, the boy and the dog, helpless and 
exhausted both of them. Dick had caught a 
glimpse of the cabin on the side of the mountain 
and had decided, when the storm broke, that they 
must get there at any cost. 

‘T carried Johnny on my back,’’ he said, "'don’t 
ask me how, but some way or other we made it. 
I was so anxious to get him in out of the storm 
that it didn’t matter much where we went. I 
don’t think I had sense enough to mind a great 
deal even when I realized it was Jake’s cabin. 
We found something to eat, although we didn’t 
take more than we could possibly help. John 
seemed to revive a little, but still I was desper- 
ately anxious, and felt that I must do something, 
no matter what. I think I believed Two Rivers 
and Rudolm were much nearer than they are and 
I had not counted on the streams all being in flood. 
I could see the light from your cabin, but — well, 
I had promised. Now, I can understand that the 
promise was a foolish business, but your judg- 


172 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

merit isn’t quite so good when you are worn out 
and half starved, as when you are rested and fed. 
You don’t see things quite so clear.” 

‘'But weren’t you afraid of Jake’s coming 
back?” Hugh asked. 

Dick, it appeared, did not have such horror 
of the Pirate of Jasper Peak as had Hugh. He 
did not even yet seem to suspect that the half- 
breed had been concerned in their being lost in 
the forest nor had he heard the full tale of what 
Jake had done to Oscar Dansk. One anxiety 
had overcome the other and he had left his 
brother, ordering Nicholas back when he would 
have come too, and finally shutting him in so that 
John Edmonds should not feel himself quite 
alone. 

“But almost as soon as I was gone he broke 
out and went across the valley to you,” Dick con- 
cluded. “Nicholas had more sense than I had, 
didn’t you, old fellow ?” 

The big dog, lying on his side before the hearth, 
opened one eye and beat gently on the floor with 
his plumy tail at mention of his name. Then he 


Peril at the Bridge 173 

heaved a great sigh, stretched himself luxuri- 
ously to the fire and fell asleep again, completely 
satisfied that those he loved were safe at last. 

Dick, also, being assured that at least his 
brother was no worse, went away to sleep off 
some of the exhaustion of his journey through 
the forest, and Hugh was left to sit alone, still 
watching for Oscar’s return and wondering more 
and more anxiously why he did not come. The 
little cabin was peaceful and absolutely quiet ex- 
cept for the ticking of the clock and the deep 
breathing of the dog at his feet, but far from 
peaceful were Hugh’s racing thoughts. Where 
had his comrade been during that furious storm ? 
What had happened to keep him so long? Oh, 
if he only had not parted from Oscar in such 
churlish ill-nature how much easier it would be 
to bear this anxious waiting! 

He looked at Oscar’s recovered rifle hanging 
on the wall and thought with satisfaction of how 
glad he would be to see it. He felt a good deal 
of pride in having been able to get it back, but, 
as he sat thinking, he began to feel his pleasure 


174 Pirate of Jasper Peak 

give way to a certain lingering doubt. Had he 
really been wise in returning to the Pirate’s 
house, was the value of the rifle greater than the 
value of the help he could give the two exhausted 
Edmonds, help that they would have lost had his 
venture ended in his being shot ? It was an un- 
welcome thought, yet he was forced to conclude 
that this was another of those errors in judgment 
of which his father had accused him, a rash fail- 
ing to count the cost at the critical moment. 

“Oh, dear,” he sighed, quite out loud, “when 
will I ever get sense enough to qualify for a sol- 
dier?” 

Nicholas, hearing his voice, raised his head to 
look at him inquiringly. He seemed to hear 
something else also, for he got up, went to the 
door and stood listening intently. Then he 
turned to Hugh and whined to be let out. Hugh 
listened, but heard nothing save the rushing of 
the stream and the sighing of the wind in the 
trees. 

“There isn’t anything,” he said to Nicholas, but 


Peril at the Bridge 175 

the big dog still insisted, so at last he opened the 
door. 

He stood before the cottage, looking in every 
direction, north, south, east; the sun was in his 
eyes so that he shaded them with his hand to look 
across the open meadows to the west. Was that 
something moving, was it a distant, plodding, 
weary figure slowly making its way up the slope? 
He could not be mistaken. It was Oscar ! 

With a shout of joy Hugh ran to meet him, 
but stopped short in surprise and dismay when he 
came close. Oscar’s forehead was cut and had 
been bleeding; his cheek was discolored with a 
great bruise; he carried neither pack nor gun, 
and he limped as he came toiling painfully up the 
hill. 

''1 had a fall,” he explained briefly, in answer 
to Hugh’s anxious questions. 

Long after, Hugh learned the real details of 
the mishap, how Oscar had taken shelter from 
the storm under a mass of overhanging rock, how 
the fury of wind and water had loosened it above 


176 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

him and how he had been swept down in the 
midst of an avalanche of plunging bowlders, slid- 
ing earth and uprooted trees, to lie stunned for 
he knew not how many hours, but — 

‘'I had a fall,’’ was all he said, then added 
quickly, “What is that? Nicholas, Nicholas T 
He sat down abruptly on a fallen tree as though 
sudden relief had weakened his knees ; he put his 
arms around the great dog’s neck. Nicholas, in 
turn, overwhelmed him with endearments, licked 
his face, nuzzled his hand, nearly pushed him 
from the log in his clumsy efforts to show his 
joy. There seemed no need to tell Oscar that the 
two brothers had been found, for he seemed to 
guess the whole of the good news from the mere 
presence of the big wolfhound. Hugh, as he 
stood looking at the greetings of the two, had a 
sudden understanding, from Oscar’s overwhelm- 
ing relief and delight, what was the real depth 
of the friendship he bore John Edmonds. 

When he and Hugh reached the cottage, Oscar 
went straight to John’s bed and sat down beside 
it. The sufferer had lain in heavy stupor for 


Peril at the Bridge 


177 


hours, only arousing once, much earlier in the 
day, to stare at the boys with no recognition and 
then to drop into unconsciousness again. But 
now, almost as soon as Oscar's firm hand closed 
about his wrist to feel his pulse, he opened his 
eyes, looked at the other with slowly dawning 
comprehension and said: 

was wrong about that road, Oscar, and you 
were right." 

‘'It wass no matter," his friend answered has- 
tily, his voice sounding Swedish again in the ex- 
tremity of his feeling. “Opening up these wheat 
lands might not have been advisable then, when 
it was just a question of dollars and cents. Now 
it is different, it is a matter of daily bread and 
lives and victory." 

But Johnny Edmonds did not hear. Having 
given voice to the thought that had so long been 
uppermost in his mind, he drifted contentedly 
away into sleep again, real sleep this time, with 
no further mutterings and restless movements of 
his head upon the pillow. Oscar got up quickly 
and went to stand at the window, looking out with 


178 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

that queer far-off look that his face sometimes 
wore. Turning at last he met Dick’s anxious 
eyes and smiled slowly and happily. 

'Tt was just a year ago we quarreled/’ he said. 
‘T thought he should have stood by me when I 
wanted to build the road ; he thought, like the rest, 
that I was a mad dreamer — perhaps I was. This 
war has overturned all things; what was a far 
vision once may be what the world most needs 
to-day. But your brother is a better friend than 
I, Dick Edmonds. I could not have been the first 
to say that I was wrong. And now all is well 
again.” 

The next day and the next, John Edmonds’ 
fever ebbed and flowed, leaving them sometimes 
full of hope that recovery was beginning, some- 
times in terror that such recovery might never 
be. In the end, however, the crisis passed, leav- 
ing him pale and shaky, but clear-headed and him- 
self again at last. It was on the first day that he 
was able to be propped up in bed that Oscar, sit- 
ting by him, began to discuss, with unreserved 
bluntness, what was being said in Rudolm about 


179 


Peril at the Bridge 

John’s books and the state in which the bank’s 
affairs had been left. For a moment Edmonds 
looked astonished, dismayed and angry, then he 
laughed. 

Three of his clerks had gone to war, he ex- 
plained, and he was so short-handed that he used 
to work fourteen, sixteen, eighteen hours at a 
time, trying to keep things going, reeling with 
exhaustion, his brain at last so weary and con- 
fused with illness that he scarcely knew what he 
was doing. 

'"Now my head is cleared up again,” he said, 

begin to realize what queer things I must have 
done to those books. The expert who is trying 
to make them out must be having a glorious time 
of it. I wonder how far he has got and what he 
thinks he has found.” 

Then Oscar broached the plan that he had evi- 
dently been turning over and over in his mind. 
Edmonds must get back to Rudolm as soon as 
possible, he said, for affairs must be cleared up 
and the anxiety of bank directors and stock- 
holders must be brought to an end. The moment 


i8o The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

he could be moved Oscar himself would take him 
home; they would go by water, the whole length 
of Red Lake, a two or three days’ journey by 
canoe. He stated the plan and its urgency very 
briefly, even more briefly told the need of the 
boys’ staying behind. 

Both immediately raised their voices in clam- 
orous objection. Dick must get back, he was 
going to enlist ; Hugh wished to go with him, in 
fact the two boys had been laying their heads 
together and making plans of their own. But in 
all of their arguments they found Oscar’s calcu- 
lations had been before them. 

Did Dick know the bars and channels and bays 
between here and Rudolm ? He did not. Could 
he, or could he and Hugh together, be sure of 
handling a heavily laden canoe successfully in the 
face of chance winds on the open stretches of the 
lake? They were not able to say they could. 
Could John be taken overland, paddled up rivers, 
carried around portages, risk a meeting in the for- 
est with Half-Breed Jake or some of his follow- 
ers? No. Or could Oscar go with Dick and 


Peril at the Bridge i8i 

John and leave Hugh behind to hold the cabin 
alone? Most certaintly not. 

So the plan stood as Oscar first proposed it, 
and, on John’s continuing to improve steadily, 
preparations were made for a start three days 
later. The night before they were to go, Oscar 
went with Hugh all over his small domain, in- 
doors and out, showing him just how this was to 
be cared for and how that was to be done. They 
were coming up the path from Hulda’s stable, 
picking their way over the rough stones in the 
moonlight, the big dog following them, while 
Oscar gave his final directions. The wide valley 
of the Promised Land lay at their feet in sharp 
outline of black and white, while above them 
the sky was powdered thick with stars and, across 
the ravine, rose the dark heights of Jasper Peak ' 
with one gleaming light shining from its rugged 
shoulder. 

‘'And you must look out for Jake,” Oscar 
ended. “Every hour, every minute, you must 
watch for him. In three weeks the date for my 
proving up will have passed, the claim will 


182 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

be really mine — if I can hold it until then/’ 

‘'But surely there is nothing that he can do 
now,” Hugh protested. 

“He and his comrades will perhaps do the 
worst they have ever done, between now and that 
day,” returned Oscar quietly. “They will not 
come openly to shoot or rob or burn, they will lie 
in wait and play some trick on you, for the 
crooked way is always their way. What they 
will do I cannot guess, I can only tell you to 
watch and never cease watching and in the end 
I know we will win.” 

“Still,” insisted Hugh, “I do not see how they 
can ruin your plan so near its end as this.” 

“Suppose,” said Oscar, “he should drive you 
out, burn down the buildings and destroy the 
fields and, before I can file my final papers, prove 
to the Land Office that none of the required im- 
provements are really here. We could take the 
matter into court and establish in time that it was 
he who laid things waste, but that would take 
months, the season would pass and the lands 
would not be open in time for a harvest next year. 


Peril at the Bridge 183 

And a year in terms of wheat and bread counts 
now for more than ten ordinary years.” 

^‘And you think that when the place is yours 
and you are settled here, then the people of Ru- 
dolm will follow?” 

‘‘I know they will. Their fear of Half-Breed 
Jake is partly habit, partly a sort of superstition; 
it is not real cowardice. When they see that one 
man has been able to hold out against him alone 
they will not hesitate longer.” 

‘^They should be very grateful to you,” ob- 
served Hugh, his voice grave with the thought of 
what weight of responsibility was to be laid upon 
him. He shivered a little. The autumn air was 
very cold. 

'T do not want gratitude,” returned Oscar 
quickly. ‘What would I have to say to them if 
they tried to thank me? No, when I see these 
hillsides covered with the grain for which the 
whole world is crying; when I can sit here on my 
doorstep and see many red roofs warm in the 
sunshine, or the moonlight making sharp black 
shadows of the pointed gables or yellow lights 


184 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

shining from the windows there, and there, and 
there ; when I can think that all within are warm 
and safe and happy, why, I can ask for nothing 
more on earth, except — except, perhaps, that little 
black Hendrik might be back again/’ 

Nicholas, who had been sitting on the grass 
beside them while they stood and talked, came 
now to rub against Oscar and push his great head 
under his hand. 

‘'You are a good fellow, Nicholas,” said Oscar, 
patting his curly shoulder, “but you are not my 
Hendrik. It is strange how a man and a little 
black dog can learn to love each other when each 
is all the other has.” 

There was much hurrying to and fro before 
dawn next morning when the journey was ac- 
tually to begin. There was carrying of loaded 
packs down to the canoe, there was running back 
for things forgotten, there were many instruc- 
tions given by every one to every one else. The 
day promised to be a clear one, although now the 
sky was dark and the water gray. John Ed- 
monds was made comfortable in the bottom of the 


Peril at the Bridge 


i8s 

boat ; the packs were put on board ; there was no 
time for elaborate farewells, even when it came 
to pushing out from shore. 

“Shove her easy,’' directed Dick, and — 

“A little more,” said Oscar. “There, now we 
are afloat. Good-by, good-by.” 

His paddle dipped, the canoe shot forward, a 
sharp ripple rose beneath her bow. The two 
boys stood watching as she moved steadily away. 
The water was turning from gray to silver and 
shining in the morning light, while a gold and 
scarlet glow behind Jasper Peak showed where 
the sun was soon to rise. Hugh and Dick still 
stood as the boat dwindled to a black speck on 
the glittering lake, turned into Harbin’s Channel 
and disappeared. Even then they waited, shad- 
ing their eyes, hoping for one more sight of it. 
Finally Hugh heaved a long sigh and the two 
turned to look at each other. The valley of the 
Promised Land was their very own, to hold or to 
lose. 


CHAPTER X 


FIRST BLOOD TO THE PIRATE 

N returning to the cottage, the first thing 



V-x that Hugh did was to mark off the date on 
the calendar just as he had seen Oscar do every 
morning. 

‘We mustn’t lose count of the days,” he said 
to Dick. 

“Oh, there won’t be so many of them as all 
that,” Dick answered. 

Hugh said nothing. Oscar had talked to him 
more fully than to his comrade about the task of 
righting John Edmonds’ affairs. 

“It may not be so simple to put them in order 
as he hopes it will,” he had said, “so the time 
may be three weeks or a month or perhaps more. 
I will not hide from you the chance that, if there 
is very bad weather soon, I may not get back to 


First Blood to the Pirate 187 

you for some time. The snow can lie very deep 
in these valleys.” 

‘‘Snow,” Hugh had exclaimed, “why, it is only 
October !” 

“Remember it will be November in a week,” 
Oscar replied, “and that this is a climate very dif- 
ferent from yours. Here the winter begins early 
and lasts long and we have to be ready for it. 
There are supplies enough to last until spring, I 
have made sure of that, and plenty of wood, so 
that there is no danger of your needing anything. 
I will come back to you as soon as I can, but at 
this season all plans go by the weather.” 

So Hugh had written a long letter to his father 
for Oscar to send, explaining why mail must be 
uncertain and just what he was doing. 

“I ought to learn a great deal from this experi- 
ence,” he ended, “enough to make even you feel 
that I am fit for service in France. I am bound 
that I will make it before I am twenty-one.” 

It did not look much like winter to-day, even 
though the woods were so bare and the hillsides 
so brown. The boys had arranged that they 


1 88 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

would hunt and fish as much as possible for the 
purpose of saving Oscar’s stores for future use, 
and that they would go out alone on alternate 
days, so that the cottage might never be left un- 
guarded. Neither one was ever to go so far 
away that a certain signal of rifle shots could 
not call him back. It was agreed that Hugh was 
to go shooting the first day, so, very blithely, he 
had made ready, shouldered his rifle and started 
forth. 

He stopped a moment before the door to look 
down at the lake, which was very still this morn- 
ing and very blue. He knew now why Oscar 
had elected to start before the dawn, for two 
canoes were skimming over the quiet surface, 
pirate vessels, although not of the accepted type. 
Often before Hugh had seen them patrolling these 
waters that Half-Breed Jake called his own, swift 
craft, dark and sinister, ready to shoot any man 
or sink any boat that ventured through Harbin’s 
Channel. Harbin, he had learned, was an ex- 
plorer who, fifty years ago, had coasted up and 
down Red Lake, mapping the islands and the bays 


First Blood to the Pirate 189 

and inlets. His boat had been wrecked in this 
channel: one could see its bleaching bones still 
wedged among the rocks, and he himself had per- 
ished at the hands of hostile Indians. Although 
the Indians had now nearly vanished and civiliza- 
tion had, since then, been creeping steadily 
nearer, the upper reaches of Red Lake were still 
as wild, unexplored and perilous as in his day. 
But — thus Hugh registered a vow within himself 
— they would soon be so no longer. 

A long day's tramp brought him fair sport, 
several partridges, two quail, but no sight of 
larger game. Hugh was a good shot and did not 
often fail to bring down his quarry. 

''I wish I could get a deer," he thought, but 
knew that for that he must go out at night. 

The air was so still and the woods so silent that 
it seemed he must be the only person within a 
hundred miles. There was a sleepy swaying of 
the branches above his head and a quiet rustle 
of the leaves under his feet, otherwise there was 
scarcely a sound. Surely in this peaceful region 
there could be no such thing as quarreling and 


190 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

bloodshed. It was hard to believe that, only a 
few miles away, the dingy cabin clung to the 
slope of Jasper Peak and within it Half-Breed 
Jake and his Indian comrades were planning any 
sort of violence that would lead to the ruin of 
Oscar’s cherished scheme. 

‘‘It must be a mistake,” Hugh reflected almost 
aloud. “I believe I dreamed it. I don’t think 
this adventure is real.” 

He had crossed a little brook, in the late after- 
noon, and was climbing the long slope beyond it 
when he realized that he was thirsty and that the 
route he was about to follow lay along the ridge, 
high above any water for many miles. 

“I am not much of a woodsman,” he told him- 
self. “I should have remembered to drink when 
I could. It would be better to go back.” 

Quickly he ran down the hill, making a good 
deal of noise as he crashed through the under- 
brush. He stooped long to drink at the edge of 
the pool and then stood up to continue his jour- 
ney. He glanced across at his own trail coming 
down to the water’s edge on the other shore, 


First Blood to the Pirate 191 

stared at it a moment, then ran splashing through 
the stream to look again. Close beside his own 
footprints and fresher even than they, were the 
marks of moccasined feet, as plain as those foot- 
prints of the big dog, Nicholas, that he had seen 
once, as plain and much more ominous. Some 
person had been following him through the wood, 
tracking him so closely and eagerly that he had 
not taken the pains to cover his own trail. 

Hugh stood still and looked and listened with 
every nerve tense, but there was nothing to be 
seen, nothing to be heard. The forest was as 
silent as a forest in a dream. He crossed the 
brook again, and climbed the hill hastily. More 
than once he turned his head quickly and looked 
back over his shoulder, but there was never a stir- 
ring leaf nor a snapping twig to prove that he 
was being followed. He made his way home- 
ward in the straightest line possible, thinking 
deeply all the way. 

Time passed, the weather grew colder and the 
daylight shorter, but still the pirates made no 
move. Only the blue haze of their smoke going 


192 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

up from Jasper Peak showed that they were still 
there, watching and ever watching. Game began 
to be scarce in the restricted limit the boys al- 
lowed themselves for hunting, so that they fell to 
dipping deeper and deeper into Oscar’s stores. 
Everything was kept in the small shed backing 
up against the cottage with its door opening into 
the main room. This place was carefully in- 
spected every day, according to instructions. 

'Tor,” Oscar had said, "if the fieldmice get in 
and chew up your bacon or a leak comes in the 
roof and spoils your flour and meal, where are 
you? In case of bad weather your lives might 
depend on these supplies being safe.” 

The vigilance of Nicholas sniffed out any over- 
bold mouse that ventured within, while the boys’ 
watchfulness prevented any mischance from wind 
and rain, so that for a time all went well. They 
began, indeed, to feel such a sense of security that 
it did not seem possible anything could go amiss 
and it appeared that, when Oscar returned, the 
report given him would be quite barren of adven- 
ture. Hugh, however, thinking of those foot- 


First Blood to the Pirate 193 

prints by the stream, still remembered that what 
danger did lurk about them was bound to be un- 
suspected and unseen. 

It had been, one day, Hugh’s turn to replenish 
the empty larder so that he had spent the whole 
afternoon fishing about a mile from the cottage. 
Dusk was just beginning, yet he lingered for 
‘'just one more bite,” since luck had not been 
good and he wished to carry home enough fish 
for one meal at least. He waited long for a 
nibble, shifting impatiently from foot to foot. 

“It must be getting too cold for fishing,” he 
commented to himself. “Why, it feels like win- 
ter all of a sudden; it has changed a great deal 
since morning.” 

He had just pulled in a flopping trout and had 
dropped it into the basket when a sudden sound 
startled him so that he dropped his rod. It was 
the sharp crack of a rifle, followed immediately 
by a second and a third, the prearranged signal 
of alarm. The pirates had struck at last ! 

A mile is a long way to run when the course is 
over a heavily wooded ridge and through a valley 


194 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

of poplar thickets. Hugh covered it in extraor- 
dinarily short time, although it seemed to him 
unnumbered hours. He was just coming, pant- 
ing, up the last slope, when he met Dick, equally 
breathless, running toward him. 

^It’s Hulda,” gasped his friend. “The Indians 
are trying to drive her off ; they have headed her 
away off yonder, over the hill.’’ 

He pointed, for even as he spoke, they caught 
sight of Hulda crossing a clearing, running with 
the awkward gait common to excited cows and 
lowing her amazement and dismay at the indig- 
nity put upon her 

“You strike across the ridge and I will run 
down into the valley,” directed Dick. “I think I 
can head her off. They sha’n’t steal Hulda !” 

With a shout, the two boys plunged to the res- 
cue. Hugh was quick enough to reach her, half- 
way down the slope, but totally unable to check 
her course. The mild Hulda, now thoroughly 
alarmed, came down the hill with a blind rush, 
blundered against him and rolled him head over 
heels. He picked himself up, unhurt, and ran 


First Blood to the Pirate 195 

after her in determined pursuit. Indeed the pi- 
rates were not to be allowed the triumph of steal- 
ing Hulda ! 

On the more open ground below Dick suc- 
ceeded in slowing her a little and Nicholas, flying 
through the thickets, like a streak of white light- 
ning, to leap and bark beneath her very nose, 
managed to turn her back up the hill. Here the 
boys were able to gain on her terrified speed once 
more, and, on Hugh's closing in and turning her 
again, she ran close by Dick, who triumphantly 
seized her by the halter and brought her to a 
standstill. 

^'I've got her," he shouted to Hugh, raising his 
arm high in signal of victory. ‘'She's — ouch!" 

For a sharp report sounded from a thicket and 
a bullet, speeding just over Dick's head, nipped 
his uplifted hand. Hugh, on coming up, found 
him applying his thumb to his mouth, as undis- 
turbed as though he had scratched it with a pin. 
Poor Hulda still plunged and dragged at her 
halter, her sides heaving and her gentle eyes wide 
with fright. 


196 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

was just coming up from the spring/’ Dick 
recounted as between them they led the cow 
homeward, ''when I heard Nicholas bark, so I 
ran around the corner of the cabin and there she 
was, just going over the hill a quarter of a mile 
away. At first I thought I could stop her alone, 
but when I saw the two Indians driving her, I 
ran back and signaled for you. Here, let’s lead 
her along the valley. I am out of breath chasing 
her up hills.” 

"Aren’t you hurt?” inquired Hugh anxiously 
as they trudged along. 

Hulda still made the going difficult, jerking and 
snorting with excitement. Her calm disposition, 
once completely roused, seemed almost impossible 
to soothe. 

"Pshaw, no, the bullet hardly touched me,” 
Dick replied. "What surprises me is that they 
let us get her with only one shot fired. I don’t 
quite understand.” 

"I wonder — ” began Hugh, then paused, for a 
thought had struck him. 


First Blood to the Pirate 197 

It struck him so deeply that he dropped Hulda’s 
rope and turned to run up the hill. There was a 
growing misgiving in his heart that turned 
swiftly to real terror as he sped along: it seemed 
as though he would never reach the summit. 
Yet even while he was struggling up the slopes 
he began to see a red glow behind the trees that 
seemed to grow brighter and brighter. In spite 
of a contrary wind there was a queer suffocating 
smell in the air. 

“Dick, Dick,” he called, “leave Hulda; come 
quickly.” 

The loss of forty cows could be nothing beside 
the disaster before him, as he reached the hill- 
top. Scarlet flames licked across the roof of 
Oscar’s cabin, with dense clouds of smoke rolling 
out toward the lake and with a single tall figure 
moving swiftly across the clearing, black against 
the brilliant blaze. 

Dick always maintained that Jake shot twice 
at Hugh as he raced across the clearing, but if he 
did so, Hugh was quite unconscious of the fact. 


198 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

‘‘We can’ put it out — we can’t put it out — 
there is so little water !” he caught himself gasp- 
ing aloud as he ran. 

Fortunately Dick, when he came from the 
spring, had set down his full pail by the doorstep 
when he went to rescue Hulda. Dashing inside, 
Hugh dragged the blankets from the bunks, 
plunged them into the water and then swung him- 
self up over the eaves to the burning roof. 
Blindly and furiously he beat at the flames, chok- 
ing in the dense smoke, feeling sparks and coals 
burn through his coat, yet caring for nothing 
but that he must quench the fire. Dick handed 
him up pail after pail of water from below; how 
he ever went and came from the spring so quickly 
was impossible to understand. 

It was Hugh who had the presence of mind to 
realize that the water must be husbanded and 
thrown upon the fire in well-aimed dipperfuls 
rather than poured pell-mell across the roof. It 
was Dick who shouted up to him that he must 
try to drive the flames back from the cabin proper, 
since saving the blazing shed behind it was al- 


First Blood to the Pirate 199 

ready beyond hope. How they toiled, now get- 
ting a little the better of the fire, now driven back 
by a fresh outburst of flame, too excited either to 
hope or to despair, feeling only one instinct — to 
fight. Hours passed, they were drenched, black- 
ened, their clothes singed, their hands and faces 
burned, they were exhausted; breathless, but at 
last victorious. 

Slowly the flames died down to smoldering 
ashes, the smoke cleared away, the last glowing 
coal was stamped upon, the last spark went out. 
Hugh slid to the ground, finding his knees sud- 
denly a little shaky, and stood looking happily 
into Dick’s blackened face. 

"We did it,” he said; ""Oscar’s got his cabin 
still.” 

""Yes,” the other assented a trifle quaveringly; 
""I thought once or twice it was really gone.” 

""And now,” went on Hugh, ""where’s Hulda ?” 

Fires, it seemed, did not excite Hulda in the 
least, for she was discovered grazing peacefully 
at the edge of the clearing, her former agitation 
entirely vanished. Nicholas had follow'ed the 


200 


The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

boys at first, but, after getting a few sparks in 
his furry coat, had decided to retreat and was sit- 
ting solemnly beside her, mounting guard. The 
cow’s stable, set at a little distance, was untouched 
by the flames, so Hulda was driven in, her man- 
ner showing plainly that she was glad to get home 
again after the disturbing events of the last few 
hours. The boys lit a lantern and tended her 
together, as though she might escape again were 
one of them to minister to her alone. They made 
no comment on the fire, both seeming to avoid the 
subject as long as possible. 

‘Tt’s cold,” commented Dick, once, shivering 
in his dripping garments, to which Hugh re- 
plied : 

‘‘Yes, and getting colder every minute.” 

That was all of their conversation. 

They finished at last and, coming out of the 
shed, closed the door very carefully behind them. 
Not until they were halfway up the path to the 
cottage did either of them speak. Yet the extent 
of their tragedy must be faced. 

“There’s quite a hole in the roof,” observed 


First Blood to the Pirate 201 

Dick, ‘'but we can mend that easily enough/’ 

“And we can block up the store room door,” 
said Hugh. “We’ll nail the whole thing over 
with boards to keep the cold out.” 

They were quiet again — but at last Dick burst 
out: 

“Hugh, do you realize that our supplies are 
burned, the shed and everything in it? That we 
haven’t one thing left to eat?” 

“I know it,” replied Hugh soberly. “I — I’ve 
been thinking about just that thing for the last 
hour.” 

“They must have meant to do it all along,” 
observed Dick. “They drove off Hulda just for 
a blind. Oh, that Jake, that skulking black- 
guard!” 

“Oscar said they would choose the mean, 
crooked way,” Hugh agreed. “He told me they 
would try some trick or other. I wish we could 
have guessed beforehand.” 

“But Oscar will be back soon,” insisted Dick 
eagerly. “He must be back soon. Gee, it’s 
cold!” 


202 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

''Yes/’ returned Hugh, "he may be back any 
day now.” 

Yet he spoke absent-mindedly, as though his 
thoughts were upon other things. It was be- 
cause he was swinging the lantern as he went 
along and his attention had been suddenly caught 
by something unexpected. In the circle of yellow 
light he saw a whirling flurry of tiny flakes of 


snow. 


CHAPTER XI 


THE WHITE FLAG 

H ugh had thought, when he saw those first 
snowflakes, that he understood a little of 
what was before them. He had later to learn 
that winter as he knew it and winter as it could 
be in northern Minnesota were two very different 
matters. To lose all their possessions at just the 
season when cold weather was closing in was a 
mishap desperate indeed, yet the boys, after a 
moment of being stunned by the gravity of the 
situation, faced it gayly. 

That same night Hugh insisted on going out to 
look for the fishing basket that he had thrown 
aside when he ran to the rescue of Hulda. With 
Nicholas to help him, he managed to find it, so, 
that evening at least, they did not have to go 
supperless to bed. Early next morning they 
arose to search the ruins of the storehouse for 


203 


204 Pirate of Jasper Peak 

anything that might have escaped destruction. 
Part of a side of bacon was found wedged under 
a fallen beam and a very small quantity of flour, 
happening to be in a tin container, had not been 
consumed. That was the whole extent of their 
salvage. 

The snow had only been falling fitfully during 
the night, but about the middle of the morning 
the storm settled down, like a blinding white cur- 
tain that shut off all the rest of the world. Once 
or twice the rising wind tore the dense veil apart, 
showing them the stormy lake, the bowing woods 
and Jasper Peak for a fleeting moment, before all 
was blotted out again. The boys had managed 
to mend the hole burned in the roof and to shut 
off the door that had once led into the storehouse, 
and now were warming themselves at the fire 
after their severe labors outside. Dick went to 
the window and took a long survey of the snow. 

‘Tf I know anything of Minnesota weather,” 
he remarked, ‘'this is the sort of storm that will 
last for days, three or four, at least, and then it 
will clear and get cold, colder than anything you 


205 


The White Flag 

ever dreamed of — thirty — forty — fifty below 
zero, maybe. If we should start now, we might 
be able to get to Rudolm, but if we wait until the 
snow is deep we could not even attempt it. What 
do you say, Hugh, shall we go or stay?'’ 

‘‘I don’t know,” answered Hugh from beside 
the fire; ‘‘do you want to go?” 

do not,” returned Dick promptly, "‘but we 
have got to decide which is the wiser thing to do.” 

Hugh looked up at the calendar on the wall. 

“Oscar has been gone two weeks and three 
days,” he said, “so his time for proving up on the 
claim will be over in five days. Jake arranged 
his plan well. He meant to burn the cabin and 
just give himself time to get down to the Land 
Office to make trouble over Oscar’s statement 
that the land is improved and so tie the whole 
thing up. He knows we have lost our stores ; he 
is watching from over there to see if we go. He 
will still have time to put the thing through if 
we do.” 

“Then let’s stay,” decided Dick with determi- 
nation. “We have food enough for two days 


2o6 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

and we’ll whistle for luck for the other three. 
Fortunately we have plenty of wood.” 

“And let’s make a big smoke in the chimney,” 
said Hugh, “so that when the storm lifts for a 
second Jake can see that we are still here and are 
going to stay.” 

It was a welcome idea and quickly carried out. 
Certainly if Half-Breed Jake had any curiosity as 
to whether the cottage was still inhabited, he had 
no need to cross the valley to find out, on that day 
at least. Dick and Hugh built up such a roaring 
blaze that there was danger of their setting fire 
to the cabin again; then they sat down before it, 
toasting their shins and reflecting on the probable 
disappointment of the Pirate of Jasper Peak. 

The hours passed very slowly, for the two had 
little to do and had chosen to have no midday 
meal, but to eat of their scanty stock only night 
and morning. The storm increased; the snow- 
fall was no longer steady, but came in whirling 
gusts, piling high before the cabin door. About 
the middle of the afternoon, Dick took his rifle 
and sallied forth with Nicholas in desperate hope 


The White Flag 207 

of bringing home some game. He was gone two 
hours, returning at last empty-handed. 

^'And very lucky I was to get home at all,’’ he 
said as he came in, stamping the snow off his big 
boots. ‘‘I vow I have been walking in a circle 
for five miles: it was only Nicholas who ever got 
me here again.” 

All night the wind screamed in the chimney and 
fairly rocked the walls of their little dwelling. 
The snow seemed twice as deep when they fought 
their way out to the stable to attend to the wants 
of Hulda. Her placid air was somewhat reas- 
suring, although Hugh observed wisely: 

"'She really doesn’t know just how things are.” 

The pail of milk that they carried back between 
them was even more comforting, for it was plain 
that with Hulda’s help they could not quite 
starve. 

"We can get pretty hungry, though,” observed 
Hugh grimly as he saw Nicholas disposing of his 
share in three laps and then looking up to beg 
mutely for more. 

There could be no thought now of going out to 


2o8 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

shoot. The snow was drifted over the window 
sills and banked against the door and still filled 
the air in white clouds driven by the roaring 
wind. The spring, their one water supply, was 
as inaccessible as though it had been ten miles 
away, so they melted snow in a pot over the fire 
and found it a most unsatisfactory process, since, 
as Dick said, ‘‘A bucketful of snow makes about 
a thimbleful of water.” 

Their supply of food was quite gone by the 
fourth day, in spite of all their care, so there was 
nothing left but the milk night and morning. 

‘That won’t keep one very long,” Hugh re- 
marked. 

He had been obliged to gulp down his share 
in the stable, being much too hungry to wait 
until he got back to the house. Dick immediately 
followed his example and, when he had finished, 
stood eying the storm through the narrow slit of 
a window. 

‘Tt can’t last a great deal longer, it simply 
can’t,” he asserted. 

Hugh, shaking down hay for Hulda, envied 


The White Flag 209 

her the pleasure with which she ate it and an- 
swered gloomily : 

‘Terhaps it can’t, but I am beginning to think 
that it will.” 

This day also wore by somehow and at last 
night came. 

‘There certainly will be a change by morning,” 
Hugh assured himself as he fell asleep. 

When he awoke, however, and got up at once 
to press his face against the snow -blurred win- 
dow he saw [just the same blinding, swirling 
storm. It looked like some sort of dream that 
would go on and on and never end. Dick, awak- 
ing, sat up quickly, but, on looking at Hugh’s 
face, forebore to ask any questions. 

“You had better lie down again,” he advised, 
dropping his head once more upon the pillow. 
“It is wiser to spend as much time sleeping as 
you possibly can.” 

Stumbling out through the drifts to Hulda, 
Hugh began suddenly to realize such weakness 
that he wondered whether he could make the 
journey again without dropping in the snow. 


210 


The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

Through the day he noticed that Dick no longer 
prowled from door to window, looking at the 
storm. He sat, instead, immovable in the big 
chair by the fire, only stirring now and then to 
add fresh logs to the blaze. The strain of his 
journey through the wood, his anxiety about his 
brother, with these present hardships, had tended 
to break him sooner than Hugh. He tried to 
speak some words of broken apology when Hugh 
went about the work of the cabin alone, but the 
truth was plain enough, that he could scarcely 
move. Nicholas lay listlessly in a corner, fol- 
lowing Hugh always with great hungry eyes. 
Night seemed to come with unbelievable slow- 
ness, even though the winter days had grown so 
short. 

They crawled into bed at last, too weak and 
dispirited, almost, to bid each other good-night. 
Hugh tossed and turned upon his bunk; he was 
too hungry to sleep. Suddenly sitting bolt up- 
right, he addressed Dick, who was awake also, 
even though he lay so still. 


The White Flag 21 1 

‘"Dick,” he said sharply, ''are you sorry we 
stayed?” 

"No,” came the answer promptly. "No, by 
George, Tm not sorry, no matter what happens.” 

"Nor I,” said Hugh, and lay down again, 
quieted somehow, so that soon he went to sleep. 

He awoke, hours later, with a vague knowledge 
that something was wrong. After rubbing the 
drowsiness from his eyes and thinking a little, he 
decided that, even under his mountain of blankets, 
he was very cold. He got up hastily, huddled on 
all of his clothes, even to his mackinaw coat, and 
went into the other room to crouch before the 
hearth. The fire was not yet dead, but such 
warmth as it could give made little impression 
upon the terrible benumbing chill that filled the 
cottage. Nicholas, shivering and whining, came 
to his side and the two crept close together, each 
getting a little comfort from the other. Dick 
was still asleep ; they could hear his breathing in 
the utter quiet, and the clock tick-ticking above 
them on the wall. In the flickering light Hugh 


212 


The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

could see the hands moving slowly until they 
pointed to twelve. 

It was midnight, the last hour of Oscar's last 
day. The cabin was safe, the claim was his, the 
first step of his great plan was made certain at 
last. 

'We've beaten Jake," cried Hugh, in a quick 
whisper and threw his arms about Nicholas in a 
great hug of delight. Then he got up stifHy and 
went to the window to survey the weather. He 
pushed aside the curtain, rubbed a clear space in 
the thick frost on the pane and looked out. He 
gasped and looked once more, with a cry of 
amazement, as though some strange vision had 
been presented to his eyes. Yet all he saw was 
calm, quiet night, a world of glittering snowfields 
and a clear sky all alight with stars. 

“Dick, Dick," he shouted, and his comrade 
jumped up hastily. 

“What is it?" he asked. “Oh, brr-rr, but it is 
cold." 

He came to Hugh's side, looked out also and 
gave the same gasp of joy. 


213 


The White Flag 

‘‘I didn’t know,” he cried, his voice almost 
breaking, “I didn’t know that stars could shine 
so bright, Hugh !” 

What happened next would have shocked 
Linda Ingmarsson, careful houskeeper that she 
was, and might even have given some pain to 
Oscar’s tidy Swedish soul. For both boys, fully 
dressed, got into one bunk together, with Nich- 
olas between them, ‘'just for company,” as Hugh 
said. The big dog accomplished wonders in the 
matter of doubling up his long legs, so that the 
combined supply of blankets sufficed to cover 
them all. Gradually, as they began to be a little 
warmer, both the boys relaxed a little from their 
long anxiety during the storm. The claim was 
safe, there was a chance that they could go into 
the woods in the morning and shoot a partridge 
or two, if they could manage to drag themselves 
that far. And now the storm was over, certainly 
Oscar would come soon. Hugh did not think 
upon these matters long, however, for he was 
growing very drowsy. 

“Listen,” said Dick at last, rousing himself 


214 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

very sleepily; ‘‘what is that sound at the door? 
Look, Nicholas hears it too.’’ 

The dog had raised his head and was sniffing 
anxiously, but without moving, as though he, too, 
were too weary to stir. Hugh listened and heard 
a sound outside like a soft shuffling in the 
snow. 

“I don’t care what it is,” he announced. 
“There is nothing on earth that can make me get 
up now that I am warm and sleepy at last. Here, 
Nicholas, spare me a bit more blanket. I am 
going to sleep for a hundred years and dream of 
a million ham sandwiches.” 

He dropped off almost while he was still speak- 
ing and Dick, apparently no more energetic than 
he, closed his eyes also. Nicholas lay with cocked 
ears listening until the soft sounds gradually 
ceased, then he, too, dropped into the unheeding 
slumber that held them all until daylight. 

When Hugh awoke his first thought was that it 
was a pleasant dream he had had of the storm’s 
being over and the stars visible. Yet when he 
sat up and saw bright sunlight pouring through 


The White Flag 215 

the windows of the little cabin he knew that it 
must be true and sprang from his bunk with a 
hurrah of delight. The air was of a more bitter 
cold than anything he had ever imagined, the 
breath rose from his nostrils in two columns like 
steam and was frozen in white crystals all along 
the edge of the blanket where Dick still lay. 
Nicholas jumped down after him, shook himself 
by way of making a morning toilet and ran to 
sniff and snuffle under the door. There returned 
to Hugh a vague recollection of the sounds he 
had heard in the night, so that he undid the fas- 
tenings hurriedly and threw the door open. The 
dazzling sparkle of the snow almost blinded him 
for a moment, while the rush of intense cold made 
him draw his breath in quick gasps. Yet noth- 
ing could blind his eyes to what lay upon the 
doorstep — a big sack of flour, a bag of dried 
beans and the frozen carcass of a deer. 

The sight of food when one is nearly starved 
has sometimes a strange and disquieting effect. 
Hugh was ashamed of the savage eagerness with 
which he fell upon the treasures and dragged 


21 6 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

them within. He kept thinking that they must 
vanish from his sight even as he held them and 
wished earnestly that Dick were not asleep that 
he might ask him whether he saw them too. It 
seemed too bad to wake him if the gifts did not 
turn out to be real. Yet the food remained very 
solid and genuine in his hands, even while he was 
preparing it for cooking and cutting off a venison 
steak. It afforded presently a perfume more de- 
licious than all the sweets of Araby, when at last 
the meat began to broil. Nicholas lay with his 
nose almost in the fire, his eyes never moving from 
the feast as Hugh turned it over and over before 
the blaze. 

‘‘You are going to have the first one,” said 
Hugh. ‘‘You deserve it if ever a dog did. You 
are the only one of the three of us that has not 
grumbled.” 

The second steak was nearly ready, flapjacks 
were browning in the pan and the beans had been 
buried in the coals to bake for another meal, when 
Dick awoke. Hugh laughed delightedly at the 
sight of him, sitting bolt upright among the blan- 


The White Flag 217 

kets, his mouth and eyes both round with unbe- 
lieving astonishment. 

‘What is it, Hugh he asked, sniffing delight- 
edly. “I could live on that smell for a week. 
Did the witches or the angels bring it 

“I don’t know,” laughed Hugh delightedly, 
“but however it came, it’s real. Get up quickly 
or I will eat it all without you.” 

They speculated long over every possible source 
for the mysterious gift, but could come to no con- 
clusion. On examining the space before the cot- 
tage they saw that some one had come on snow- 
shoes up the hill and had removed them to walk 
in the narrow trampled path that the boys had 
made, deep in the drifts, up to their door. 
They could see where the snowshoes had been 
stuck upright against a bank while the owner 
came up to the doorstone: the footsteps were 
short, shuffling ones made by moccasined feet. 

“But no Indian man that ever I saw walks with 
such a short stride as that,” Dick insisted, staring 
thoughtfully at the marks in the snow, “and think 
what a load he must have carried !” 


21 8 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

Hugh had a sudden rapid memory of two fig- 
ures he had seen that first day he walked through 
the streets of Rudolm, a swift, silent Indian strid- 
ing ahead and behind him his wife bearing just 
such a load as this on her bent shoulders 
and by the deerskin strap across her forehead. 
Yet he did not speak of the thought in his mind, 
it was far too fantastic and impossible. 

They dined like lords that day, but spent most 
of the time still hugging the fire, for the cold was 
as fierce as had been the storm that went before 
it. The sun shone brilliantly, turning everything 
to diamond and silver and making their little 
world, as they looked out upon it, a strange and 
unfamiliar place. Jasper Peak opposite was 
sheathed in white from base to summit, with high- 
banked drifts and curving blue-shadowed hol- 
lows. The lake's surface was blue again, an odd 
clear greenish blue, for it was ice. During the 
tumult of the storm it could not freeze over, but 
now was a glistening expanse, with white broken 
rifts here and there, where the floating masses of 
ice had been caught and frozen in. The long 


219 


The White Flag 

shore showed sharp lines of dark and white in 
its crowded pine trees with their burden of snow. 

An hour after noon they had gone out to clear 
a path to the stable, a heavy task in snow that had 
drifted six and seven feet high wherever shelter 
offered. Nicholas, running about them, floun- 
dered shoulder deep in even the open places and 
more than once succeeded in burying himself en- 
tirely. 

‘'Hugh,’’ said Dick at last — he had been lean- 
ing on his shovel and staring across the ravine — 
“I wish you would look over there at the pirates’ 
cabin and tell me what you see.” 

Hugh turned to look as he was bid, yet for a 
moment saw only the half-buried shack and the 
group of pointed, snow-covered pines behind it. 

“I don’t see anything,” he answered. “What 
do you think is there ?” 

“Come over by me so that the chimney is in line 
with those trees. Don’t you see now, something 
fluttering on a pole ?” 

Hugh came close and looked again, long and 
carefully. 


220 


The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

*'Why, they have a flag flying/’ he exclaimed at 
last, ‘^and, Dick, it’s a white one!” 

‘That’s it,” cried Dick excitedly. “I thought 
I saw it this morning, but with the sun in our 
eyes I couldn’t make it out. It is plain enough 
now ; it looks as though they wanted help.” 

“They deserve to get it, don’t they?” com- 
mented Hugh bitterly, digging his shovel very 
deep into the snow. 

They finished clearing the path in silence, then 
walked slowly back to the cottage. They sat be- 
fore the fire for a little, each deep in the same 
thought. 

“He shot Oscar’s dog,” Hugh suddenly broke 
out. “He made it so that Oscar couldn’t go to 
war, he — he — Dick, does a man who can do such 
things deserve any help?” 

“He has done worse things than any you know 
about,” returned Dick, “and I know now that he 
had a hand in that Indian Kaniska’s leaving us to 
starve in the woods; he has done every sort of 
thing, but — but — ” 

As if with one movement, they both looked 


221 


The White Flag 

up at Oscar’s snowshoes hanging on the wall. 

‘‘There is only one pair,” observed Hugh. 
“We can’t both go.” 

“Then,” said Dick, and neither had occasion to 
tell the other thatv a final conclusion had been 
reached, “then we will have to draw straws. 
And it is very generous of me to give you even 
a chance, because I know I am better on snow- 
shoes than you.” 

“I have tried them in the Adirondacks,” Hugh 
replied. “I am not so clumsy with them as you 
seem to think. Well, straws it is. The longest 
one goes.” 

They arranged the straws with great show of 
fairness and secrecy and drew. 

“Oh, Hugh, you have all the luck !” exclaimed 
Dick in bitter disappointment as he gazed at his 
abbreviated straw and at Hugh’s irrepressible 
grin of satisfaction. 

“It is really better,” was Hugh’s answer, in 
which he tried to keep the excited delight from 
his tone. “We have not either of us come 
through this last week feeling any too husky, but 


222 


The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

it has been harder on you because it was your 
second try at starving. If we weren’t both of us 
so well fed now, I think we would quarrel.” 

^‘It isn’t fair,” cried Dick jealously. ‘^After 
all, you ought to stay here. Some one must milk 
Hulda and I don’t know how.” 

''Nonsense,” returned Hugh rudely. "For 
myself, I never want to see milk again. Where 
is that extra revolver? Lend me your mittens, 
they are drier than mine.” 

He strapped on the snowshoes, ordered Nich- 
olas back in spite of the delighted preparations 
the dog was making to join the expedition, bade 
Dick a sympathizing good-by and turned his face 
stoutly toward Jasper Peak. The dry, stinging 
cold was so intense as almost to take his breath 
away, but he was growing a little more used to it 
at last. The big snowshoes seemed awkward at 
first ; he soon fell into the proper swing, however, 
and made good speed down the hill to the edge of 
the stream. The brook itself had disappeared 
completely under snow which was so soft that 
here he sank and floundered in spite of the snow- 


223 


The White Flag 

shoes. It was difficult going up the steep incline 
on the other side, but in his eagerness and curi- 
osity he managed to climb quickly. 

There was no sign of life about Jake's cabin, 
only the white flag — it looked like a torn shirt — 
was still fluttering from its rough pole beside the 
chimney. There were footprints about the door, 
those same heavy, shuffling steps that he had 
seen before their own cabin. He knocked loudly 
and stood waiting, thinking of the last time he 
had stood upon that doorstep. There was a 
pause and such silence that he could hear his 
heart hammering excitedly against his ribs. 
Then a sound of slow, dragging feet came from 
within, there was a fumbling at the lock, the door 
opened and a broad awkward figure appeared on 
the threshold. Somehow, in spite of his surprise, 
he felt that he had half expected to see that 
swarthy face and wide, strange, mirthless smile. 
It was Laughing Mary. 


CHAPTER XII 


A HIGHWAY THROUGH THE HILLS 

HE woman made only an inarticulate sound 



1 of welcome and motioned Hugh to come in. 
Like all Indians she preferred to converse 
through grunts and signs rather than by means of 
such English as she had at her command. When 
Hugh had entered she made no further comment, 
merely pointed silently at a bunk in the corner. 

There, half propped up amid a mass of torn 
and dirty blankets, lay Half-Breed Jake. He did 
not move or speak when Hugh came near, but his 
little pale eyes turned quickly and his heavy black 
brows knitted in a scowl. The boy stood looking 
from one to another, puzzled, not yet knowing 
the meaning of that signal flying above the roof. 
At last the Indian woman, seeing his bewilder- 
ment, condescended to explain. 


A Highway Through the Hills 225 

‘‘I think — dying/’ she remarked briefly in her 
thick English. 

Jake’s pale eyes flickered at the words, but still 
he did not speak. Hugh went closer to look at 
him and saw that his hands and feet were clumsily 
wound with rags and that the dirty bandage had 
slipped down from one wrist, showing the angry 
discoloration of flesh that had been frozen. He 
asked Laughing Mary many questions, but re- 
ceived no answers but shakings of the head. 

Finally he unbuckled his revolver, took off his 
cap and mackinaw and turned his attention to 
doing what he could for the helpless man. He 
had a feeling of intense repulsion when first he 
touched him, but none the less he bathed the 
swollen hands and feet and rebandaged them. 
He had a certain knack in such matters, inherited 
from his father and increased by such training 
as he had got in helping him. He set the filthy 
mass of rags in order to make some semblance 
of a bed; he built up the fire and showed the 
woman how to make civilized broth from the 
abundant deer’s meat in the storeroom. 


226 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

As she stood stirring the pot he made another 
attempt to question her, trying again and again to 
get some explanation of how affairs had come to 
such a pass. But Laughing Mary merely jerked 
her head toward the bunk and said : 

''Old — live hard — die.’' 

Thus she summed up what was, to her, the 
most ordinary thing in life. 

It was the second time that he had tended a 
sick person in that house, so that Hugh already 
knew the full resources of the Jasper Peak cabin. 
In John Edmonds’ behalf he had worked fever- 
ishly, feeling nervous, excited, starting at every 
sound from his patient, wondering and puzzled as 
to what to do next. Now he felt himself entirely 
calm, at no loss what to do even though the state 
of this man was far more desperate than the 
other’s. He realized how much even a small 
amount of experience can do and how immeas- 
urably older he had grown even in the month that 
had passed since he had been in this same place. 

He came and went steadily until at last he had 
done all he could, then he sat down by the fire to 


A Highway Through the Hills 227 

wait, and to watch for results. Laughing Mary 
sat on her heels on the floor opposite him, nod- 
ding with drowsiness while both of them were 
watched unwaveringly, as the long hours passed, 
by the pale eyes of that helpless figure in the bunk, 
the broken, ruined Pirate of Jasper Peak. 

And Laughing Mary, since no one pressed her 
for her story, or disturbed her dim, wandering 
mind by questions, finally began to speak. She 
startled Hugh first by rising suddenly, fetching 
something from the corner and flinging it upon 
his knee. 

''Should be yours — make all the trouble,’' she 
said brokenly. 

Hugh, in wonder, held it up to the firelight. It 
was the brown bear’s skin ! 

He had learned by now that it was better to 
say nothing and so sat silent, without question or 
comment for a long time. He was rewarded by 
her telling him the whole truth at last in abrupt, 
queerly-spoken sentences, uttered at long inter- 
vals, often after an hour had gone by without a 
word. Little by little he was able to piece to- 


228 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

gether all the facts that had puzzled him so long 
and to learn the truth about that adventure in 
which he had so unexpectedly become involved. 

As he listened he knew at last that the vital 
figure in the whole affair was Laughing Mary. 
Nothing had happened as it should and every plan 
had gone awry, merely through the strange irre- 
sponsibility of an Indian woman’s mind. He and 
the Edmonds boys who did not know her well, and 
Oscar and Linda and Half-Breed Jake who did, 
had all been equally deceived. They had been 
drawn together by a strange web of circum- 
stance of which she was the center. They had 
all of them had their own ambitions and hopes 
and misgivings and fears, and the rock they had 
all split upon was Laughing Mary. 

Jake, it seemed, had long ago formed the plan 
of setting the two brothers adrift in the forest 
and of casting suspicion on John Edmonds’ mem- 
ory. He had applied to the Indian Kaniska to 
help him, but the man had refused on account of 
his friendship for John. So the matter had ap- 
parently ended until one night, passing through 


A Highway Through the Hills 229 

Two Rivers, Jake had shown the Indians his furs 
and Laughing Mary had seen the brown bear’s 
skin. 

Indians have still so much of the child in them 
that, when they see something they greatly desire, 
they will barter away their last property on earth 
to gain possession of it. With just such longing 
did the woman covet the bear skin. Jake’s price 
was her husband’s help in his scheme against the 
Edmonds and that was the bargain they finally 
made. Certainly she had not realized fully what 
Jake had in mind, or known, when she lent herself 
to do his bidding, what she had really done. 

Only when the days passed and the Edmonds 
boys did not come back, when she discovered, 
moreover, that Jake was withholding the bear 
skin and had no intention of really giving it to 
her, did she begin to see in the depths of her 
fumbling, clouded mind, what it was she had 
brought about. She had gained possession of the 
coveted skin by threatening to tell the whole 
truth to Hugh, as the Edmonds’ friend, and she 
had learned, from the consternation of both Jake 


230 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

and her husband, just how ugly a deed they had 
accomplished between them. 

She had learned more of the gravity of the 
matter when Hugh went through Two Rivers to 
seek help from Oscar Dansk; she had sat brood- 
ing by the fire day after day, more and more re- 
pentant yet never knowing what to do. She had 
finally come through the forest to learn for her- 
self how matters stood and had arrived the night 
of the fire, just before the storm. She had been 
imprisoned in the cabin with Jake during those 
five days of fierce snowfall and she made Hugh 
understand, even in her halting English, that it 
was much the same as being within the same four 
walls with a madman. Her husband had re- 
turned to Two Rivers, so that she was alone with 
Jake and must listen hour after hour to the tumult 
of words that she scarcely understood. All his 
hopes of holding the valley, of keeping Oscar 
from establishing his claim, of proving that no 
one could successfully defy him, all this must 
stand or fall by whether the boys could hold the 
cottage and Oscar Dansk could register his claim. 


A Highway Through the Hills 231 

At first he had been certain that they would go 
the moment their stores were destroyed. When 
he had learned from the smoke in their chimney 
and the steady light in their windows that they 
were to stay, his fury knew no bounds. Even 
during the storm, in which no ordinary man could 
walk abroad and live, he went forth every night 
to go close to the cottage on the hill and see if its 
defenders were not weakening. It had been the 
last stab to Laughing Mary’s dumbly repentant 
heart to hear that the boys were starving in the 
cabin opposite and it had been she who, the mo- 
ment the snowfall cleared, had robbed Jake’s 
larder and toiled across the valley to bring them 
food. 

Jake had already been behaving strangely that 
night, his rage, excitement and the long life of 
hardships and excesses had probably brought him 
near to the breaking point. He had tried to fol- 
low Laughing Mary, had floundered into a drift 
and had lain there in the fearful cold until she 
found him and dragged him home. His desper- 
ate fury at what she had done made her fear to 


232 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

come near him, and his terrible, helpless suffering 
from his frozen hands and feet made her feel that 
she must call for aid. 

“When white man give up — wave white flag,’’ 
she said and pointed upward toward where she 
had raised the signal on the roof. That was the 
end of her story. 

To all of it Jake had listened, with never a 
change of expression, never moving his eyes from 
Hugh, powerless to interrupt or to deny. Only 
when the Indian woman once mentioned Linda 
Ingmarsson’s name there was a change, a momen- 
tary wincing and a quivering of those steady 
eyes. Perhaps Hugh’s sensibilities had been 
sharpened by his recent experiences, for certainly 
he guessed quickly and as surely as though some 
one had told him that Jake must have loved Linda 
long ago, but that his bullying ways had failed 
before her courageous scorn of him. 

“Old — live hard — die,” said Laughing Mary 
again when she came to the end. Such was her 
only comment on the fall of that once-feared 
master of Jasper Peak. 


A Highway Through the Hills 233 

Hugh sat musing, stroking the bear skin on 
his knee and wondering what he might say to the 
woman, who looked up at him with such unhappy 
eyes. 

''It might have been,’’ he said at last, ‘‘that if 
you and Kaniska had refused to do what Jake 
wanted, he would have found some one who 
would, some one who did not care so much and 
who would never have helped us in the end, as 
you have done. So perhaps the brown bear’s 
skin has saved us all.” 

She seemed to go over his words laboriously, 
as though their meaning came very slowly. 
Then, when she had caught what he meant, she 
gave a quick little cry and turned away. The 
stoical Indians never weep; if Hugh had not 
known that well, he would have sworn that there 
was a glint of tears in her eyes. 

So intently had he been listening, pondering 
and putting together the story from her frag- 
ments of information, that he had paid no heed 
to the passage of time. He saw now, as he got 
up from his seat, that the flame in the smoky Ian- 


234 Pirate of Jasper Peak 

tern was burning very dim, that faint moonlight 
was coming in at the little windows and that the 
night was far advanced. He went over to stand 
by the helpless man. 

‘‘Is there nothing you want, is there nothing I 
can do for you T' he asked. 

He felt a strange wave of pity for this broken 
being who had lived his life so hopelessly wrong 
and who was so near the end. Nothing he could 
do ? What could be done, thought Hugh, so late 
as this ? Plainly the man was of the same opin- 
ion, for his eyes looked only dull and weary 
hatred and, although his lips moved a little, he 
did not speak. 

“Do you want to rest?'' Hugh asked Laughing 
Mary, but she shook her head. “Then watch for 
me a little, for I am dead for sleep." 

It was bright morning when he opened his eyes 
and started up in dismay at having slept so long. 
Laughing Mary, sitting beside Jake's bunk, 
looked up at him and gave him a smile, a smile 
of relief and gratitude this time, not the queer 
empty one that had given her the name. There 


A Highway Through the Hills 235 

seemed to be little change in Jake, his pulse was a 
trifle weaker, perhaps, and his eyes stayed shut 
for longer and longer at a time. Hugh went into 
the storeroom to see what food would be best for 
him; he looked carefully through every box and 
canister to make certain what was there. So 
occupied was he that he did not hear the swishing 
of snowshoes over the frozen slopes outside nor 
even heed a quiet knock at the door. It was not 
until some one came into the room and laid a hand 
upon his arm that he turned quickly to see Oscar 
Dansk. 

That their greeting was a joyful one need 
hardly be said, but the first words of Hugh’s 
eager welcome were broken off by his shout of 
delight when he saw what Oscar was pulling from 
his pocket, a great handful of letters addressed 
in his father’s handwriting. 

‘‘Miss Christina, at the postoffice, has been 
much worried about the way your mail was piling 
up,” said Oscar. ''She said I was to give these 
to you before I said a word, for she was sure I 
would forget them if we once got to talking.” 


236 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

Hugh snatched the letters, sat down upon a box 
and then and there read them all through to the 
end. They told of the voyage, of Dr. Arnold’s 
arrival at the base hospital, of his work and his 
associates and the war. One of the letters, the 
last, made Hugh exclaim aloud in delighted hap- 
piness. It said: 

''Since I have been here and have seen how 
things stand and have thought the matter well 
over, I have begun to think that there might, after 
all, be a place for you in this hospital work. I 
know that I will be sent home in the spring, for a 
month, on some business for the Medical Depart- 
ment, and it is possible — remember, I make no 
promises — it is possible that I may consider tak- 
ing you back with me.” 

Hugh looked up from his letter to tell the good 
news to his friend, but did not speak, so struck 
was he by the odd expression on Oscar’s face. 
His eyes shone in a way that the boy had never 
seen before, while there was about him the air of 
suppressing some excited secret. 

"What is it?” Hugh cried. 


A Highway Through the Hills 237 

will show you,” returned the other. 

He opened the door into the main room and 
went in, Hugh following, filled with curiosity and 
wonder. As they crossed the cabin, he caught 
Oscar's sleeve and began to tell him of Half- 
Breed Jake. 

‘We will speak of that later,” was the answer. 
“Put on your coat, come quickly.” 

They went outside into the clear, glittering 
cold: how good it seemed after the close, dark 
little shack ! Oscar led Hugh across the clearing, 
in the opposite direction from his own house, 
along the ridge that ran down to the lake. The 
sun was very bright, the air absolutely still. He 
stopped where the ground was so open that they 
could see out across the forest. 

“Look,” he said, and pointed. 

Crowning the top of the next hill stood a giant 
pine that towered high above its fellows. As 
Hugh watched, its branches commenced to trem- 
ble, although never a breath of wind was stirring. 
The whole tree began to rock and sway, to bow 
forward as though shaken by a furious gale ; then 


238 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

with a roar that sounded through the whole val- 
ley, it fell crashing and disappeared. 

''Oscar,’’ cried Hugh, "what does it mean?” 

There was a little silence, then Oscar spoke in 
a voice husky with excitement. 

"It means the road,” he said; "they are clear- 
ing the way to build it at last.” 

They watched another tree fall and another, 
as they stood there in the breathless cold, while 
Oscar told his story. His return with John Ed- 
monds and his news that Jake had been unable to 
prevent the establishing of a claim, had stirred 
the people to belief in his plan at last. First a 
few and then more and more had agreed to help 
him, until now nearly all the men of Rudolm were 
at work in the forest, clearing the way, and haul- 
ing out the logs over the frozen ground, prepara- 
tory to building the road in the spring. 

"Now that they know the land is mine, safe in 
spite of Jake, there are a hundred more who are 
ready to dare the same thing. Ingmarsson and 
my sister Linda will come first, others will fol- 
low; they will be here soon enough to break the 


A Highway Through the Hills 239 

ground and plant it in wheat this spring. The 
road will be slower ; it has many hills and valleys 
to cross, but by summer when the harvest is ripe, 
it will be ready to carry the grain away. Some 
day we will be able to fill one of those great ships 
whose sailing once so nearly broke my heart.’’ 

‘‘And that man there?” questioned Hugh, 
motioning upward toward the cabin that lowered 
at them from above on Jasper Peak. 

“We can carry him out to Rudolm, now that 
the way is cleared,” Oscar answered. “I think 
he may live a little time longer, but his power to 
do harm is gone forever. Yet when he tried to 
burn the cottage he came, but for you, very near 
to beating us at last.” 

They walked down the hill to the edge of the 
lake so that Hugh might catch a glimpse, around 
an intervening spur, of the line of cleared ground 
that wound across the valleys. They sat down 
upon a snowy log and talked long and earnestly 
of what had passed and of what was to come. 
Suddenly Hugh looked down and recognized the 
big tree trunk upon which they sat. 


240 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 

'‘Look/’ he said, "it is the very tree that made 
a bridge for us to cross the creek when it was in 
flood. Here are even the marks where the bullets 
cut the bark.” 

It had been washed ashore and lay now, one 
end frozen in the ice, one high and dry upon the 
bank. Here it would lie for years to come, peace- 
ful and undisturbed, the sun hot upon it, fishes 
darting about its outer end, the turtles climbing 
up to bask in the noonday summer heat. So it 
would lie, unmindful of the part it had played in 
the events of that stirring night, lie until the 
valley of the Promised Land was settled, until 
Oscar’s road, white and travel-worn, lay slanting 
across the hills to bear the gifts of the new coun- 
try to the old. It would fall slowly into decay 
and the sharp hoof of the last of the wild deer or 
giant moose, coming down to drink, would stamp 
it into powder in the end. For the close of the 
struggle had come and peace had settled over the 
domain of the Pirate of Jasper Peak. 

"You will stay to help us?” Oscar was saying. 


A Highway Through the Hills 241 

'‘You will see the fields planted and watch the 
harvest come in/’ 

"I will help you this winter,” Hugh answered, 
"and perhaps stay in the spring to see the plant- 
ing. But,” and he patted the letter in his pocket, 
"by the time the harvest comes I will be in 
France.” 

He wished a moment after that he had not 
spoken, for Oscar’s face clouded, yet quickly 
cleared again. 

"Yet there will always be things to do at 
home,” he said, "for us who are not so lucky as 
you who go to France.” 


THE END 


PBIKTSD IN THE UNITED STATES OP AMEBICA 



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